Greece paid 310 million EUR to IMF

Greece paid 310 million EUR to IMF on Friday, which is the first tranche from the loan from the International Monetary Fund. The newly elected government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has to pay a total of 1.5 billion EUR to IMF in March, despite that the country is still difficult to satisfy its financing. The next three tranches are due on 13, 16 and 20th March.

The government of SYRIZA promised that will make the payments, but uncertainty increases due to the monetary position of Greece. The country is faced with a sharp drop in tax revenues and assistance from its creditors remain ‘on hold’ while Athens finish the promised reforms. The Greek government sent an updated list of reforms for approval from Brussels before the meeting of the Eurozone finance ministers on Monday. The list includes measures to fight the tax evasion, cut red tape, creation of a fiscal council and others.

In a letter to the Council of Finance Ministers of the Eurozone (a.k.a Eurogroup), the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says that Athens aims to save 200 million EUR of spending cuts in the public sector. At the same time it is expected that the country will have its required 200 million EUR to deal with the so called “humanitarian crisis”. Greece will strive to collect 500 million EUR of additional new licenses for gambling and taxes on the activity of online gambling operators.

Athens exhausted its possibilities for financing, despite the agreement on the extension of the rescue program. The country needs about 4.5 billion EUR per month. The Governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras meanwhile assured that the country’s banks are well capitalized and have no problems with the outflow of deposits.