Article content continued

Greece, like all other International Monetary Fund members, holds reserves from the IMF that are denominated in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a basket of international currencies. The reserves must be kept at a certain level or the country must pay interest if its holdings fall below its “allocation” of SDRs from the IMF.

A government official told Reuters that Athens used about 650 million euros from the SDR holdings account and 100 million euros from its cash reserves to make the payment on Monday.

The Greek central bank official confirmed the account had been tapped after government officials met the central bank chief last week to figure out how to make the payment.

“The negative is that the account was emptied but in order to avert a default it was necessary to weigh the options,” the Bank of Greece official said.

As of the end of March, Greece had about 554 million SDRs, equivalent to 695 million euros, according to IMF data.

The Greek official said the account was usually only tapped in emergencies, though IMF data shows countries often draw on these reserves. The last time Greece made a significant withdrawal from its SDR holdings was in November 2011.

Made a day early, the IMF payment calmed immediate fears of a Greek default, but Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Monday the liquidity situation was “terribly urgent” and a deal to release further funds was needed in the next couple of weeks.

The account was emptied but in order to avert a default it was necessary to weigh the options

The IMF on Tuesday confirmed Athens had made its payment to the fund but declined to give details about how it was made.