Christina Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. (Photo: AFP)

(VOVworld)- Christina Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said Thursday that the IMF will not allow Greece to delay payment of the 2.5 billion euro loan scheduled due next month. Germany’s Focus news agency quoted Lagarde at a news conference during the IMF-World Bank spring meetings on Friday.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, the same day, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that a bailout package only works if the country in crisis makes an equivalent effort. Following that speech, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that the demands of Greece’s international creditors are too harsh and Greece would be prudent to avoid mistakes it made in the past. Greece’s debt crisis will top the agenda of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, which opened Friday.