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Greek FinMin to meet IMF chief, as Athens promises no default this week

Xinhua, April 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is to hold a meeting with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Sunday and U.S. Treasury Department officials on Monday, as Athens assured there will be no credit event this week.

Varoufakis travelled to Washington for "informal talks on the government's reform program," according to a laconic Greek Finance ministry statement.

The visit comes amidst rumors that Greece was under enormous pressure to meet all its financial obligations this week, starting with the repayment of a 460 million euros installment to the IMF on April 9 and the payment of pensions and salaries of public servants.

The country has not received bailout aid since August 2014 and according to local and international media reports state coffers were running dry.

Greek officials have acknowledged there were liquidity issues in particular since February, but underlined there were still adequate funds to cover all needs in coming weeks.

"Greece will repay the IMF installment on time," Greek government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis told Sunday's "Eleftheros Typos" (Free Press) newspaper.

Economy Minister Yorgos Stathakis appeared confident speaking to the same daily that Greece would reach an agreement with creditors "in coming days" and that funding to the debt laden country will be restored.

Following the Eurogroup February 20 agreement that bridges the four-year bailout that expired on February 28 with a new comprehensive deal on the Greek debt crisis in summer, Athens tabled a reform list for approval by lenders in order to unlock further aid in April.

According to the updated schedule, a Euro Working Group meeting will be held on April 8-9 to pave the way for a new Eurogroup meeting which could decide on the issue later in April.

As negotiations with creditors continue, Greek citizens appeared divided over the way the newly elected Leftist government was handling the crisis, according to the latets opinion survey.

More than half of Greeks, at 54.7 percent, feared a default in the near future and a subsequent exit from the euro zone by 52.6 percent, according to the survey conducted by polling firm Metrisis for "Proto Thema" (Top Story) newspaper.

A 46.8 percent of respondents approved of the government's negotiating strategy and 48.6 percent were satisfied with the overall efforts made by the new government after the January 25 general elections. Endit