Greece makes repayment to IMF as cash reserves risk running dry

By Eleni Chrepa & Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece repaid a loan due Monday to the International Monetary Fund, further depleting cash reserves that risk running out this month unless a deal is reached with European partners.

Greece deposited about 584 million euros ($615 million) with the IMF as scheduled, according to a Finance Ministry official, who asked not to be named in line with policy. As other repayments come due this week, the government said on March 14 that it had a plan to "enhance its liquidity" and won't have problems paying wages or pensions.

Locked out of capital markets, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's government is eating into cash reserves while trying to get the euro region to release more funds from its 240 billion-euro bailout program. He'll join European leaders in Brussels on Thursday after tensions between Greece and Germany escalated last week. Greece filed a complaint against German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble followed by Schaeuble saying he couldn't rule out Greece leaving the euro.

"Our intention is to do everything possible to pay back every single euro," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on German public broadcaster ARD late Sunday. "My message to the viewers this evening is very simple: help us to grow, so that we can pay the money back."

Uncertainty over the country's funding position has hurt investor sentiment. Greek bonds are the worst performing of all 34 sovereign indexes tracked by Bloomberg's World Bond Index this year, as the yield on 10-year notes rose 137 basis points last week to 10.78 percent. Yields on three-year notes rose 23 basis points to 19.31 percent at 12:33 p.m. in Athens on Monday.

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