GREECE intends to meet debt payments this month and reach a deal with its international lenders to unlock remaining bailout aid, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insists on tough labor reforms, the country’s labor minister said yesterday.

    Struggling amid a cash crunch, Athens faces debt repayments to the IMF totalling nearly 1 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) this month. It has been borrowing from municipalities and government entities to meet obligations.

    Asked whether it will be in a position to make the IMF payment, Labour Minister Panos Skourletis told Mega TV: “The country has chosen to pay its obligations and reach an agreement (with lenders). We are trying to have the money.”

    Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s three-month-old government is under growing pressure at home and abroad to reach an agreement with European and IMF lenders over reforms to avert a national bankruptcy.

    Skourletis said the IMF was unyielding on its demands for labor reforms, including pensions cuts, mass layoffs and resisting a plan by the leftist-led government to raise the minimum wage.(SD-Agencies)