ATHENS (Sputnik) – The payment, made on Thursday, amounts to 186.3 million euros (about $203.6 million) and is the first timely transfer that Greece has made to the IMF since the beginning of June. Greece’s next repayment to the fund is scheduled for September 1.
Athens and its creditors, which include the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB) and Eurozone countries, are currently negotiating a new bailout package, which will be the third provided to Greece by the lenders since 2010.
The press service of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Thursday that Athens and its creditors should finalize the third bailout deal right after August 15.
On August 20 Greece is due to make a 3.4 billion euro ($3.8 billion) repayment to the ECB. If Athens does not reach an agreement with its creditors before that date, it will most likely need a bridge loan.
Greece used a bridge loan from the European Union to make an IMF repayment in July, after it failed to make two June repayments to the fund.
The last Greek bailout program expired on June 30th. Athens is currently negotiating a third bailout package, worth $95 billion, to be administered to the country by its international creditors over the next three years in exchange for economic reforms.
A preliminary agreement on the third bailout was reached in mid-July.
