Emergency fund used by Greece to pay IMF

Greece emptied an emergency IMF holding account to repay €750m due to the international lender, a Greek central bank official said, avoiding default but underscoring the dire state of the country’s finances.

With Athens close to running out of cash and a deal with its international creditors still elusive, there had been doubts about whether the leftist-led government would pay the IMF or opt to save cash to pay salaries and pensions later this month.

Member countries of the International Monetary Fund are required to keep a holding account which may be used for emergencies but the money can only be used with the lender’s approval, the central bank official said.

A government official told Reuters that Athens used about €650m from the holding account and €100m from its cash reserves to make the payment.

The Greek central bank official confirmed the account had been tapped after government officials met the central bank chief last week to figure out how to make the payment.

“The negative is that the account was emptied but in order to avert a default it was necessary to weigh the options,” the Bank of Greece official said.

Made a day early, the payment calmed immediate fears of a Greek default, but finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Monday, the liquidity situation was “terribly urgent” and a deal to release further funds was needed in the next couple of weeks.

The IMF yesterday confirmed Athens had made its payment to the fund but declined to give details about how it was made.

“Regarding aspects of the payment that some of you have asked confirmation about, we don’t publish information on the details of members’ transactions with the fund,” an IMF spokeswoman said .

Central bank chief Yannis Stournaras met deputy prime minister Yannis Dragasakis and deputy foreign minister Euclid Tsakalotos, a top negotiator in talks with lenders, on two occasions last week to discuss how to meet the May IMF repayment, the central bank official said.

“The central bank governor put forth the idea to tap the €650m in the holding account, which needed IMF approval,” the official said, declining to be named.

A second Greek official said yesterday that the reserves the government tapped must be replenished in the IMF account in “several weeks”.

Following legislative changes, Greece has gathered €600m of local government and other public entity money to help it deal with the cash crunch, the government’s spokesman said. Eurozone finance ministers said on Monday that more work was needed to reach a cash-for-reform deal between Athens and the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.