The Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis told the Associated Press that Greece “shall squeeze blood out of stone” in order to pay the IMF in March. He added that if Greece does not pay on time, it will not be the first country to do so. Regarding the debts towards the ECB, he explained that they are different and would require consultation with Greece’s partners and the institutions.
In another interview for the Ethnos newspaper, Mr. Varoufakis spoke about the need to raise Greece’s Treasury bill issuance ceiling in the next four months and stressed that it is one of the essential conditions for a smooth flowing economy.
Mr. Varoufakis referred to his German counterpart Woflgang Schäuble in interview for the Australian ABC network, where he noted how pitting one proud nation against another was a tactic used with abysmal results during the interwar period.
In an interview published in the German Handelsblatt on Monday, Mr. Varoufakis argued that “debt haircut is dirty word”.
Greece’s immediate needs
The Greek government has to pay back 1.5 billion euros worth of loans to the IMF in March, with the first tranche of 299 million euros due on Friday. In order to cover these needs, Greece has requested from the ECB so that Greek banks can support the renewal of 1.4 billion euros worth of Treasury bill this week.
On the domestic front, the government will have 1.55 billion euros worth of pensions and wages to pay, 1.32 billion for insurance funds, hospitals and welfare, 700 million euros for operational expenses and subsidies, while a further 200 million euros will be necessary for tax returns.
