Greece bundles debt, talks to continue

Greece has bundled all its June payments into one, thus avoiding Friday's debt deadline.

A Greek flag as pedestrians walk at the main Athens' Syntagma square

(AAP) Source: AP

Greece has bought time in debt crisis negotiations by moving to bundle four looming IMF loan payments into one, to be paid by the end of June.

The rare move, permitted by the International Monetary Fund only once before, allows Athens to avoid a Friday deadline to pay back about 300 million euros ($A438.63 million), as it weighs up the newest proposal from its IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank creditors.

Negotiations, which went into late hours on Wednesday, are aimed at unlocking the final 7.2 billion euros ($A10.53 billion) tranche of the current bailout agreement.

Athens desperately needs the funds to honour debt payments amid fears a default could lead to a messy Greek exit from the eurozone.

For days the IMF had dismissed reports that Greece would invoke the "bundling" solution to the looming debt payment - essentially putting it off three weeks.

The announcement came just a few hours after IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she was "confident" Greece would make the 300 million euro remittance on Friday.

"The Greek authorities have informed the (IMF) today that they plan to bundle the country's four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said.

A Greek government source said "we used an option that IMF rules offer us, and which give us additional time for negotiating".

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has taken back to Athens the latest proposals from the "Troika" of lenders, after a four-hour meeting on Wednesday with European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

While details of the proposal were not officially released, Lagarde said they "clearly demonstrated significant flexibility on the part of the institutions".

Greece is seeking less harsh fiscal and reform requirements attached to the loans from the three official creditors, who in turn have expressed dissatisfaction with efforts by the Tsipras government to roll back some earlier reform promises.

The country's current 240 billion euros ($A350.90 billion) bailout program is due to run out at the end of June, and it and its creditors have been seeking a breakthrough in four-month negotiations.

Tsipras's government has presented its own 47-page blueprint on how to overhaul the struggling Greek economy without resorting to harsh austerity measures that stifle economic growth.

Tsipras's hard-left Syriza party was elected in January on promises to end five years of painful austerity measures that saw the Greek economy contract by a fifth.

Athens has insisted on lower targets that would allow it to honour promises to voters to increase public spending, having already made compromises on pension reform and sales tax.

European sources said another high-level meeting could be held in Brussels as early as Friday.

Tsipras is also due to brief parliament on the talks on Friday evening, the government said.

Greek media said the government was hoping for a deal by June 14.

Any deal that does eventually emerge faces a major hurdle as the reforms would have to be approved by the Greek parliament.


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Source: AAP



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