“Greek government will ask for a two-month extension to repay the International Monetary Fund,” if not enough revenues collected, Alekos Flabouraris, State Minister responsible for government coordination said on Thursday.
Speaking to private Mega TV, Flambouraris said that “there is a liquidity problem, but we believe that with the measures we will immediately launch there will be liquidity.”
Referring to Finance Minister Varoufakis’s statement of “problems with paying back IMF and ECB in summer,” Flambouraris revealed:
“If we collect €0.8 billion and not €1.4billion, we will ask for a two-month extension.”
He said further that the extension would not mean “a credit event, as this is neither of their nor of our interest.”
OK, it is a credit event if extension in repayment is done without the IMF’s permission. But Greece will ask for permission.
The question is, of course: how the markets will react and the oh-no rating agencies.
But do we care?
UPDATE: a day later, on February 27/2015, government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis said that “Greece does not intend to ask a 2-month repayment extension form the IMF” and that “it was just an idea by Flampouraris.”
