Greek Drama Continues: Athens Faces Debt Repayments To The IMF Of €1.5B Next Month

“Now is the moment that negotiations are coming to a head. Now is the moment of truth, on June 5,” Nikos Filis, spokesman for Syriza party’s lawmakers, told ANT1 TV channel yesterday. “If there is no deal by then that will address the current funding problem, they won’t get any money.”

In an interview with British Channel 4, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis made it clear that if Greece fails to reach negotiations with lenders, the government will have to give pensioners and public sector workers priority.

In the meantime Reuters reports today that “Greece expects to reach a cash-for-reforms deal with its creditors in the next 10 days and aims to meet all its payments in June, the government’s spokesman said on Friday, after the prime minister met with EU leaders.“

“We think conditions have matured for (talks) to progress further and in the next 10 days, in May, for the deal to be sealed,” government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told Skai TV.

Athens faces debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund totaling 1.5 billion euros next month, apart from paying civil servants and pensioners. The first installment falls due on June 5.

Also the outlook for the Greek banking system is negative, primarily reflecting the acute deterioration in Greek banks’ funding and liquidity, says Moody’s Investors Service in a new report published recently. These pressures are unlikely to ease over the next 12-18 months and there is a high likelihood of an imposition of capital controls and a deposit freeze.

“Greece has revealed it’s been asked by the US to prolong anti-Russia sanctions. However, Athens stressed Russia is a strategic ally and the ‘sanction war’ is causing it an estimated loss of €4 billion a year,” RT reports today.

Greece has lost more than €4 billion ($4.5 billion) as a result of the anti-Russia sanctions, Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said.

Russia and Greece have been improving economic cooperation lately. Last April Moscow invited Athens to become the sixth member of the BRICS New Development Bank. Greece expressed interest in the offer.