Greece to pay €450m loan instalment to IMF as eurozone gives reforms deadline

Cash-strapped Greece is poised to pay €450m (£328m, $487m) as a loan instalment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the deadline date of 9 April.

"The payment has been scheduled and will go out later today," a government official was quoted as saying, according to a Reuters report.

Greece managed to raise €1.14bn in six-month treasury bills earlier in April to keep itself afloat.

Troubled Athens has been in talks with its eurozone partners and the IMF on a package of reforms for receiving further aid.

Eurozone deputy finance ministers earlier gave Athens a deadline of six working days to come up with revised reform proposals to unlock bailout aid, according to Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

Athens submitted a 26-page reform proposal but the EU and IMF were of the opinion that the proposal's revenue projections were too optimistic and that it failed to address key issues of pensions and labour markets.

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the eurozone's finance ministers in Riga on 24 April. Greece expects to reach a deal with creditors by then, according to minister of state Alekos Flabouraris.

Athens has received two bailout loans from the troika of lenders including the European Central Bank, the European Union and the IMF totalling €240bn since 2010. In return, the country promised to implement tough austerity measures.

The newly elected, left-led government challenged the austerity programmes and the lenders have frozen further aid to the country. The parties are required to reach an agreement on a new package of economic reforms in order to unlock further aid.