Greece was Forced to Raid its Reserves to Make IMF Payment

Greece was forced to tap into an emergency account to make a debt interest payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it has emerged.

The government raided its reserves to make the €750m (£538m) payment on Monday, one day ahead of the deadline.

It comes after Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis warned his country was weeks from running out of cash.

Greece is believed to have borrowed €650m from its IMF holding account to meet the debt interest payment.

Member countries have two accounts with the IMF – one where they deposit their annual quota, in effect their membership fee, and another where they store reserves, including gold, for emergencies.

Country quotas are based on each country’s relative size in the world economy.

One Greek official told Reuters on Tuesday that the reserves that the government used must be replenished in the IMF account in “several weeks”.

Greece also used €100m of its cash reserves to make the full payment on its IMF bailout loan interest, the official said.

via BBC

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