Greece has combined four of its upcoming loan payments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a move to buy time in the ongoing negotiations with international creditors over its debt crisis.
Athens announced its decision on Thursday, a day ahead of a deadline to pay about 300 million euros ($340 million) to the IMF.
"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.
The IMF spokesman added that the lender allowed Greece to postpone its Friday deadline to June 30, citing rules which allow countries in debt to bundle “multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month."
An unnamed Greek government source also said Athens "used an option that IMF rules offer us, and which give us additional time for negotiating."
The move comes a day after another round of negotiations between Athens and the troika of international creditors- the IMF, European Commission, and the European Central Bank (ECB) - aimed at trying to reach an agreement on the country’s repayment of some $330 billion it has received as part of a bailout program, ended without a deal.
The talks have been going on for four months.
Greece is currently considering a proposal by the international lenders, which have been demanding the anti-austerity Greek government to implement economic reforms and impose austerity measures in order to receive the remaining $8-billion tranche of its bailout deal.
The debt-ridden country has proposed its own 47-page plan, saying the crisis can be resolved without the government resorting to austerity measures.
Athens received the international loans after it plunged into an economic crisis in 2009.
SZH/KA/HMV