Greece, close to an agreement with creditors, Tsipras said after meeting – The Financial

BRUSSELS Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Greece is close to an agreement with its creditors and will make a payment of debt to the IMF on Friday, after meeting President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker , and the head of finance ministers from the euro zone, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Tsipras said early Thursday that Athens It is very close to an agreement with creditors on its primary budget surplus and its closure was a matter of days

About the payment to the International Monetary Fund said. “Do not worry about it “and he noted that Greece has made payments in the past and will continue making them.

Tsipras explained that what is at issue are” the Greek proposals “and that talks must end with a “realistically”.

The Greek government, which is facing bankruptcy has resisted the demand for creditors to make more cuts to pensions and increase the sales tax to generate a budget surplus increased to enable it to meet its loan obligations.

Meanwhile, The European Commission said progress was made in talks which he described as constructive.

Tsipras had called on creditors to show “realism” and said d eseaba an agreement allowing Greece to escape “economic strangulation” and to end “doomsday scenarios”, including the possibility that his country is expelled from the bloc.

Eurozone officials had said that creditors want to Greece present a primary budget surplus of 1 percent this year, that will gradually increase to reach 3.5 percent in the 2018.

The proposal contains elements eurozone almost certainly will be difficult to accept for his leftist Tsipras and Syriza , who came to power in January with the promise of ending years of austerity in the country.

THREAT “DEFAULT”
marginalized from international bond markets, Greece has received no cash from its major creditors the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the nations of the eurozone since last August and public coffers are almost empty.

Greece should disburse the IMF a stretch of 300 million euros ( $ 335 million) on June 5, but spokesman Syriza lawmakers said Wednesday that the country would breach the payment if there are no prospects of an assistance agreement in exchange for reforms with creditors.

“If there is no prospect of agreement by Friday or Monday, do not know when exactly, we can not afford,” Nikos Filis told Mega TV television network.

Greece three other pending payments to the IMF in June , including scheduled for Friday, totaling thousand 230 million euros.

While , sources said the euro zone finance ministers postponed a conference call block to discuss Greece until Thursday afternoon.