GREECE will repay a loan tranche to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on time April 9, its deputy finance minister said Friday, seeking to quell fears of default after a flurry of contradictory statements on the issue in recent days.

    Greece is fast running out of cash and its eurozone and IMF lenders have frozen bailout aid until the new leftist-led government reaches agreement on a package of reforms.

    That prompted the interior minister to suggest this week that Athens would prioritize wages and pensions over the roughly 450 million euro (US$490 million) payment to the IMF, though the government denied that was its stance.

    Eurozone officials then quoted Greece as saying it will run out of money April 9, which the finance ministry denied.

    “We strive to be able to pay our obligations on time,” Dimitris Mardas told Greece’s Skai TV. “We are ready to pay April 9.”

    Adding to the confusion, German magazine Der Spiegel quoted a finance ministry general secretary, Nikos Theocharakis, as saying Greece would probably not pay this week’s IMF tranche, prompting a further denial from the Greek finance ministry.

    Theocharakis said Greece would be “close to the end” Thursday and called the technical teams from its creditors “completely useless,” according to an extract of the article due to be published Saturday.

    “Mr. Theocharakis never characterized the technical teams of the institutions with the phrase attributed to him,” the ministry said in a statement. “On the contrary ... he referred to them as saying they include ‘top-notch people with impressive skills.’”

    (SD-Agencies)