IMF's Lagarde rules out deferring Greek loan repayment

LONDON (ShareCast) - International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde confirmed on Thursday that the institution will not allow Greece to defer repaying €971m (£700m) in instalments due next month. It's clearly not a course of action that would be recommendable "It's clearly not a course of action that would actually fit or be recommendable," Lagarde pointed out at the organisation's spring meeting with the World Bank in Washington.

In addition, Lagarde echoed that in the last 30 years, no payment delays have been granted by the IMF to advanced economies.

"They have been granted to a couple of developing countries [...] and that was not followed by very productive results," she added.

This announcement came a day after the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble dismissed that an agreement between Athens and its international creditors could be reached next week at the next Eurogroup meeting to be held in Riga on 24 April Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis acknowledged that the debt negotiations will determine Europe's future.

He expressed that the Greek government is keen to reach a deal, but stated that it must be the right one. In addition, he quoted European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, saying that the Eurozone can only succeed anywhere if it succeeds everywhere.