Reuters provided a “laundry list” on Friday of whhere the Greek government is extracting the last euros in reserves it can lay its hands on, given that EZ creditors and the IMF remain unconvinced of the reforms/proposals/initiatives repeatedly presented since mid February.
The news agency says the bill for pensions and wages due at the end of the month is two billion euros, on top of another one billion due the IMF in an instalment in the first half of May.
The government has so far “raided” — taking the reserves and leaving a short-term “IOU” in the coffers — the Athens metro, pension funds, regional entities, banks’ commissions and other sectors of the vast, for Greece, public sector.
Regular tax revenues, which start flowing in early in the month, should help the state’s financial position of course. Tax revenues had begun to slip early in the year, when Tsipras’ government was elected, but have stabilized since to around 4 billion euros a month.
Without an agreement for a loan extension (bailout), the radical leftist SYRIZA government, and its coalition partner, the nationist anti-austerity Independent Greeks, will have to choose between the IMF and pensions/wages next week.
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