Athens Greece admitted yesterday it was scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash as another huge debt repayment loomed, adding pressure to reach a rescue deal with its EU-IMF creditors to avoid default and crashing out of the eurozone. Athens only managed to repay 750 million e
Athens
Greece admitted yesterday it was scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash as another huge debt repayment loomed, adding pressure to reach a rescue deal with its EU-IMF creditors to avoid default and crashing out of the eurozone.
Athens only managed to repay 750 million euros ($845m) due Tuesday to the International Monetary Fund after tapping into an emergency account, a central bank source told AFP as alarm grew over Greece's dire finances.
But billions more in loan repayments are due over the next three months, and Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis warned that his country risked running out of cash within two weeks if no deal was reached by then with its international creditors to unlock the last tranche of aid funds.
The crisis sent European stocks sinking Tuesday, mirroring sentiments across Asia and on Wall Street.
"The liquidity issue is a terribly urgent issue. It's common knowledge, let's not beat around the bush," Varoufakis said on Monday after talks with his Eurogroup counterparts in Brussels.
"From the perspective (of timing), we are talking about the next couple of weeks."
