In case of default or missing payment, Greece and its partners have no alternative plan

Greece and its partners haven’t discussed having the country miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund or default, Bloomberg reported referring to a senior Greek government official as saying.

If there is a meeting during a European summit on migration in Brussels on Thursday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will tell German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Greece has fulfilled its part and an accord could be agreed upon in April, said the person who asked not to be identified.

When asked about the prospect of snap elections or a referendum, he said that inability to find a consensus would be considered in Greece as a political event and would have to be dealt with in a political manner. Such scenarios do not belong to the government agenda and are viewed as hypothetical.

Negotiations on Friday will move to Riga, Latvia, where euro-area finance ministers will try to persuade Greece to deliver economic reforms so that aid payments can be released before the country runs out of money.

Yesterday Merkel signaled that she won’t back off on Germany’s insistence on “reforms in combination with solid finances” in the euro area. Germany “will continue to call for this course of action, even though we sometimes face considerable pressure internationally,” she said at an event in Berlin, without mentioning Greece.

Earlier this week, Greece's local governments were ordered to transfer their funds to the central bank. Draining commercial banks of their deposits, the move will help Tsipras meet end-of-month salary and pension payments.

Euro-area finance ministry representatives were doubtful about whether Greece’s incremental progress would be enough to unlock emergency loans, according to two people familiar with the matter. The main stumbling blocs were Greece’s refusal to privatize state assets, change its pension system and deregulate the labor market, one of the people said.