Greece’s finance minister will submit an official request to his eurozone peers this week for the early repayment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This was revealed by Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during a press conference on Sunday.
“The relevant request will be submitted by the finance minister to the Eurogroup on Friday,” Mitsotakis said.
“Our aim is for Greece to return to the investment grade as soon as possible to be able to borrow at even lower rates,” he stressed.
“Greece will be pleasant surprise in Eurozone in next 3 years,” the Greek prime Minister added.
In April, the SYRIZA government had sent to European Stability Mechanism (ESM) the government’s proposal for the early repayment of part of the IMF.
Greece wanted to repay early to the IMF nearly 3.7 billion euros (1.5 billion coming due this year and 2.2 billion coming due in 2020), as ESM head Klaus Regling had revealed following the informal Eurogroup in Bucharest beginning of April.
The amount Greece was requesting to repay early concerns part of the debt with the high interest rate of 5.13% and which is vulnerable, among other factors, to fluctuations in interest and currency exchange rates, a danger that cannot be dealt with through the use of financial tools
Mitsotakis did not reveal whether he will stick to the same modalities as SYRIZA.
Nevertheless, the procedure wants the ESM’s approval before the request lands at the Eurogroup table.
PS September 13th is a … Friday. Bad omen?
