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Struggling amid a cash crunch, Athens faces debt
repayments to the IMF totaling nearly 1 billion euros this
month. It has been borrowing from municipalities and government
entities to meet obligations.
Asked whether it will be in a position to make the IMF payment,
Labor Minister Panos Skourletis told Mega TV: "The country has
chosen to pay its obligations and reach an agreement (with
lenders). We are trying to have the money."
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's three-month-old government is
under growing pressure at home and abroad to reach an agreement
with European and IMF lenders over reforms to avert a national
bankruptcy.
Skourletis said the IMF was unyielding on its demands for labor
reforms, including pensions cuts, mass layoffs and resisting a
plan by the leftist-led government to raise the minimum wage.
"They (IMF) are asking us to not touch anything (from the
austerity measures) that have ruined Greek people's lives in the
last five years," he said.
Elected on pledges to roll back austerity, the government has
been resisting further cuts in pensions and legislation that
would allow mass layoffs. Unemployment remains near record
highs.
Negotiations with lenders have made headway in recent days and
an agreement could be closer this month, a Greek government
official said on Sunday, although sticking points remain.
"The IMF is the most inflexible side ... the most extreme voices
of the Brussels Group," the minister said. "But there are also
calmer voices."
(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Angeliki Koutantou;
Editing by Larry King)
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