Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis admitted that Greece may have a serious liquidity problem after two weeks. The statement was made after Monday’s Eurogroup meeting in Brussels. Varoufakis said, “The liquidity issue is a terribly urgent issue. It’s common knowledge, let’s not beat around the bush… From the perspective (of timing), we are talking about the next couple of weeks.” The finance ministers statement was made after the Greek government admitted that it had difficulty raising the 750 million euros needed for Tuesday’s (today) due payment to the International Monetary Fund. Athens has been forced to borrow cash reserves from state entities’ funds such as municipalities and pension funds in order to meet financial obligations, such as loan payments to creditors and public sector salaries and pensions. Greece is close to a default that may send it out of the euro zone. The Greek side won some positive comments on the progress of negotiations in Monday’s meeting of euro zone finance ministers, but didn’t win much-needed liquidity to keep the country afloat. The Eurogroup statement said, “We welcomed the progress that has been achieved so far… At the same time, we acknowledged that more time and effort are needed to bridge the gaps on the remaining open issues.” Now Greece is hoping that the European Central Bank will open liquidity taps for much-needed cash. Athens has to scrape together another 1.5 billion euros which is due to the IMF in June. In July and August, the country will need another 3 billion euros for payments to the ECB, making an agreement much more urgent.
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