The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that it didn’t receive the €1.5 billion payment from Athens that was due by the end of June 30, Brussels time, as Greece becomes the first developed country to default on its international obligations.
IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement that Greece had asked for a repayment extension earlier on Tuesday and that the Fund’s board will consider it “in due course.”
The news hardly comes as a surprise. On Tuesday, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told journalists that Athens would not make the IMF debt payment on time.
Skipping a payment to the IMF is referred to as arrears – owed money that should have been paid earlier – in the terminology of the Fund. It should be officially reaffirmed by the IMF chief Christine Lagarde who in a month should notify the Executive Board of the Fund.
In fact, this could be classified as a default, as any other failure to pay its debt on time. This could trigger a cross-default on Greece’s multibillion-dollar commitments to the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF). The IMF cannot issue new loans the country, which has arrears.
The question now is what’s next for the country’s financial system, the people and its membership in the Eurozone.
#IMF statement on #Greece. #ec #ecb #Greferendum #economy pic.twitter.com/pXiG9VUCt9
— Manos Giakoumis (@ManosGiakoumis) June 30, 2015
On Tuesday Greece asked the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that includes all of the 19 Eurozone members for a new bailout that’ll cover the country’s financial needs during the next 2 years. The request included a restructuring plan for Greece’s debt to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which accounts for about 63 percent of the country’s total debt.
The Eurogroup refused to extend the bailout program to Greece, rejecting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ latest request for a new bailout, Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday.
However, the Europgroup of euro zone finance ministers are to discus new proposals from the Greek government on Wednesday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that her country will not consider a third bailout for Greece before a referendum in Greece on July 5 takes place, various media outlets have reported.
On June 5 Greece invoked a 1970s IMF rule that allowed it to bundle all of its €1.5 billion payments due June into one, thus avoiding immediate default. However, it failed to pay even under these conditions.
Greece is also due to pay €6.6 billion to the ECB in July and August.
The ECB has already turned down the Greek call for expanding €89 billion emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to Greece by €6 billion to tackle deposit flight. This resulted in closing banks for a week and limiting withdrawals to €60 a day.
The country also has to make payments to private creditors, which includes €2 billion in Greek Treasury bills that are due on July 10. If they fail to do that, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said it would designate Greece as being in default.
The Greek government led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came to power aiming to end austerity measures, and has repeatedly said its goal is to stay within the euro.
On Saturday, the government announced a national referendum on the creditors’ offer to the country.
Even if the referendum is not on Greece leaving the Eurozone, many leading European politicians have said that a “No” answer would be a refusal to stay with Europe.
Voting “No” would mean a suicide for Greece, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Monday. However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Tuesday Greece can maintain its membership in the Eurozone even if the nation votes against austerity reforms this Sunday.
“international obligations”…HAHAHA! Greece should tell the IMF and the European Union to go to hell!
They (countries) should ALL tell the jews to go to hell, Sunfire.
Not that they already aren’t, but the sooner the better.