A meeting between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras is underway at Maximos Mansion following Thursday’s European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council at Nicosia, Cyprus. Present at the meeting are Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis and Finance Minister Yianis Varoufakis. Government circles believe that it is a ‘bad omen’ that the ECB refused to open its “canisters” to fund Greece.

The ECB made it clear that it would resume normal lending to Greek banks only when Athens complies with its bailout program and is on track for a favorable review. There would be no limits raised on Athens’ issuance of a short-term debt to help the Greek government avert a credit crunch.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’ coworkers are cited as wondering: “At first they told us that we needed to be on a program after March 1 and we are. So now they tell us that they have exhausted funding margins and can not give more?”

On Friday, Greece needs to pay off a 298.9-mln-euro installment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in return for the first rescue package for Greece and another 1.4 bln euros for bonds. It also needs to have enough money in its coffers to pay off 336 bln euros to the IMF next Friday and another 1.6 bln euros for bonds payments. The 500 mln euro that the ECB agreed to pump to banks are only marginally adequate to prevent ‘accidents’.

Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis admitted on private ANT1 news that there is a cash flow problem, however said that it is hardly as sharp as it is portrayed. He recognized that among the positive messages sent by ECB Chief Mario Draghi was the fact that he stressed that Greek banks don’t have a problem. He stressed that Greece managed to come to an agreement, however this isn’t reflected in Draghi’s reactions. He said that the agreement achieved gives the impetus to move forward though there are forces that possibly want Greece to return to the Memorandum of the past. “We are honoring our agreement and are waiting for our partners to honor it too,” said Dragasakis.