Greens Wants A Loan Deal By The End Of The Month

Greece says it wants to reach a  loan deal with its creditors by 31^st May. The country seems to be running out of cash and government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis has said that a deal is required immediately.

Greece has to make a payment £1.09bn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 5 June.

Last week , the government raided its IMF reserves in order to pay €750m in debt interest on its existing loans.
"A deal is required immediately, this is why we are talking about the end of May, to resolve these critical liquidity issues," Gabriel Sakellaridis said.
The Greek government, EU and IMF have been locked in negotiations for four months over economic reforms the IMF and EU say must be implemented before the latest €7.2bn tranche of the country's bailout fund is released.
The deadlock has created fresh fears that Greece will run out of cash.
Issues still to be resolved are thought to include pension reform, deregulation of the labour market, and the re-hiring of 4,000 former civil servants.
There have been suggestions Greece could default on loan repayments as early as the next €1.5bn payment due to the IMF.
Greece faces a stringent repayment schedule in the coming months, and alsoneeds to continue paying salaries and pensions.