IMF not to support Greek repayment delay: Lagarde
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has dismissed reports that Greece is seeking to obtain a delay on its debt payments, saying the organization will not support such a move.
Christine Lagarde made the remarks during a press conference at the start of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington on Thursday.
"It's clearly not a course of action that would actually fit," Lagarde said, adding, "We have never had an advanced economy ask for payment delays."
She also noted that the board of the IMF has not granted payment delays over the past 30 years, warning that Greece would create an additional burden on the Fund members if it asked for a delay in its debt payments.
The comments came in the wake of media reports suggesting that Athens had informally asked the IMF to be authorized to put off payments to the Fund.
However, Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis denied having made such a request.
The development comes as talks are underway between Greece and its international creditors over the cash-strapped country’s bailout program.
Athens has been unable to borrow on international markets over the past years. The European Union has called on Greece to present a list of revised reforms needed to restart bailout loan payments before eurozone finance ministers meet on April 24.
Greece received two bailouts in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of €240 billion (USD 272 billion) from the so-called troika of international lenders following the 2009 economic crisis.
The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza Party stormed to victory in January 25 elections, has tried to renegotiate the terms of the country’s bailout it received in return for imposing harsh austerity measures.
During his electoral campaign, Tsipras vowed to reconsider the austerity measures, which have caused mounting dissatisfaction in the country.
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