Athens: Greece has raised the pressure in the make-or-break negotiations with its EU-IMF creditors after postponing a loan repayment due Friday, playing for more time to reach a deal that meets its anti-austerity programme.
Athens had been scheduled to repay the International Monetary Fund 300 million euros ($340 million) but late Thursday it announced it would bundle all four IMF repayments totalling 1.6 billion euros due this month, postponing the deadline to June 30.
While the decision may have taken Greece`s eurozone partners by surprise, Athens maintained that the exceptional move, permitted by the IMF only once before, "had been on the table since the previous payment" a month ago, Greek Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis said in an interview with the BBC.
The announcement of it taking that option came just a few hours after IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Thursday she was "confident" Greece would make Friday`s remittance.
"The Greek authorities have informed the (IMF) today that they plan to bundle the country`s four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said, citing rules allowing debtor countries to regroup "multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month."
Dodging the threat of an immediate default, Greece has bought more time to negotiate with its creditors -- the European Union, IMF and European Central Bank -- who are demanding tough reforms before releasing the final 7.2 billion euros in bailout funds.
But the move rattled investors, with the Athens Composite Index falling more the four percent by mid-day Friday, as it was a de facto acknowledgement by Greece that it is quickly running out of money.
Many worry that a default would set off a chain of events that could lead to a messy exit from the euro for Greece.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras`s radical left government is seeking less harsh fiscal and reform requirements attached to the loans from the three official creditors, who in turn have expressed dissatisfaction with Greece`s efforts to roll back some earlier reform promises.
A Greek government source on Thursday described the creditors` position as "extreme" and "unacceptable".
Tsipras is set Friday evening to address the Greek parliament, explaining to his hard-left Syriza party the status of the negotiations.
"On two particular points, related to adjusting the fiscal targets for 2015 and 2016, we will not accept the proposed measures," said Stathakis.
The lenders have been insistent on higher primary budget surplus targets than Athens would like, financed by increased rates of sales tax, cuts to civil servants` salaries and to national pensions.
Low targets for the primary surplus -- the government budget surplus before counting in payments on the national debt -- would free up more money for social spending, and the Tsipras government has been adamant there will be no further cuts to salaries and pensions.
While Tsipras again late Thursday talked by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merket and French President Francois Hollande, the EU said no date has been set for another round of negotiations after talks late Wednesday failed to produce a breakthrough.
"We said such a meeting is possible, yes, but at this stage (EC chief Jean-Claude) Juncker has not addressed a similar invitation" for a new meeting like the one late Wednesday, Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for the European Commission, told reporters.
"So no short-term meeting here," he said.
Several European sources told AFP earlier that a new meeting is not expected to take place before Tuesday, after the G7 summit.The crisis talks between Athens and its creditors -- the EU, IMF and European Central Bank -- will be a key talking point at the summit of Group of Seven leaders on Sunday and Monday in Germany.
"There`s going to have to an attempt at combining" the different positions, said economist George Pagoulatos.
The Tsipras government`s acceptance of raising taxes significantly "is a big step toward being realistic," he said.
At the same time, the government, elected in late January on an anti-austerity platform, feels that is has already made concessions to its initial programme.
Lagarde however has told Athens the ball is in its court because the creditors have already shown "considerable flexibility".
Still, "things are open... exchanges possible", said French Finance Minister Michel Sapin on Friday.
Delaying its IMF payments gave the cash-strapped country a bit of breather and it also delivered "a domestic political message" to the recession weary Greek people, said Panagiotis Petrakis, an economist at the University of Athens.
Only Zambia used this bundling debt payment option during that country`s crisis in the mid-1980s.
