April 8-9 are two crucial days for Greece: On April 8 the Euro Working Group will convene to review the list of proposals sent by the finance ministry and on April 9 Athens has a 448-million-euro payment due to the International Monetary Fund.
Also, on April 9 there is a meeting of the European Central Bank Board of Directors, where the Greek issue will be discussed as well.
According to a Reuters report on Thursday, Athens will be out of cash on April 9, after the payment to the IMF. In addition to that, in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Greek Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis explained that if the country’s creditors would not unlock further funds by April 9, the government would first pay salaries and pensions and then come to an agreement on making a late payment to the IMF.
Government spokesperson Gavriil Sakellaridis spoke to Bloomberg and ruled out such a scenario saying that “there is no chance that Greece will not meet its obligations to the IMF on April 9.”
The payment to the IMF is going to be the next financial test for Greece, which has already borrowed from state entities to avoid a cash crunch. According to previous reports, Greece will run out of money by April 20 if it does not receive fresh financial aid from its creditors. At the same time, its lenders have frozen aid until it implements reforms, currently being negotiated between Athens and the institutions participating in Greece’s bailout program.
This makes the meeting of the Euro Working Group extremely important for Greece that desperately needs a part of the 7.2-billion-euros tranche of the bailout program. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that negotiations are on a good path but they will take some more time and Athens needs to make more reforms.
According to government sources, Greece is willing to make concessions in the insurance funds reforms in order to expedite the release of funds from lenders.
On a political level, on April 8 Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. There is a lot of speculation on the particular meeting, although it is very unlikely that there would be any financial outcome.
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