The International Monetary Fund (IMF) denied reports on Wednesday that it has ordered U.S. tour operators to withhold payments to Greek hotels after the Greek government’s default on its €1.54-billion installment. According to the IMF, the fact that Athens was not consistent with its obligations “does not affect private transactions.” Meanwhile, Hellenic Federation of Hoteliers President Yiannis Retsos revealed to Greek media: “American tour operators contacted Greek companies to inform them that their payments were ready to be made, taking into account that 95% of the payments are made with remittances. They claimed that, although they were ready to send the remittances, American authorities informed them that any money transfer to Greek banks would have been committed.” And Retsos continued giving his own version of the events: “Therefore, we were asked what we wanted to do. We told them to hold their payments until we had further information. There is acknowledgment of the debt and they still expect us to tell them when we are ready to accept their payments.”
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