RIGA, April 16 (Reuters) - A 1 billion euro ($1.32 billion) aid payment due to Latvia in June will be delayed until July, but the country has enough funds to last until then, the finance minister said on Thursday.
He was confirming a report in newspaper Bizness i Baltiya, which reported the payment due in June, part of a 7.5 billion euro bailout led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would be delayed. Latvia has already missed out on one payment, worth 200 million euros, in March.
"It's almost a certainty (the June payment will be missed), but that's a planned certainty," Finance Minister Einars Repse told Reuters.
"We do not actually need this money and the programme will be officially approved after we have amended our budget, and that's exactly scheduled for June," he said.
"This is indeed a planned event and we have plenty of liquidity. We do not need any additional money now until July."
His words contradicted those of Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovksis, who has said Latvia will run out of money in June and that the country faced bankruptcy.
Latvia's programme with the IMF ran into trouble after the economy started to take a deeper dive than expected and the Dombrovskis government, which took office last month, decided to try to negotiate a higher than planned budget deficit this year.
However, the IMF has insisted Latvia keep to a deficit of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and reduce the funding gap to 3 percent of GDP by 2011 before aiming to join the euro zone in 2012.
"We are working towards our structural reforms," Repse said.
"We'll do our best to make it quality reforms and then I am confident that everything will be okay with the programme and our further speedy advance towards the euro," he added. (Reporting by Jorgen Johansson; editing by Stephen Nisbet)