Greece scrambles to avert fiscal crisis

Greece stepped up diplomacy with eurozone partners, yesterday, to try to avert a potentially catastrophic funding crunch this month, when it must make a big debt repayment to the IMF as cash reserves dry up.

Ministers were travelling to Frankfurt, Brussels and Paris to plead for a loosening of the financial stranglehold on Athens after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke by telephone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s pre- eminent leader.

“They discussed the course of the negotiations in Brussels and exchanged views on the issues of Greece’s deal with its lenders,” a Greek government official said of the call on Monday night, without elaborating.