Greece delayed a key debt payment to the International Monetary Fund due tomorrow as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, facing fury among his leftist supporters, demanded changes to tough terms from international creditors for aid to stave off bankruptcy.
The IMF said Athens had informed the global lender that it plans to bundle four payments due in June into a single 1.6 billion euro lump sum, which is now due on June 30.
«Under an Executive Board decision adopted in the late 1970s, country members can ask to bundle together multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month,» IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement.
It was the first time in five years of crisis that Greece has postponed a repayment on its 240 billion euro bailouts from euro zone governments and the IMF, and it came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said talks on a cash-for-reforms deal were still far from reaching an agreement.
Tsipras, elected in January on a promise to end austerity, returned from late night talks with EU officials in Brussels to face an outcry over conditions that would breach the «red lines» his Syriza party has declared.
He told ministers the government could not accept «extreme proposals» and said the creditors should understand that the Greek people had suffered enough and they «have to stop playing games at its expense», a Greek official said. Tsipras will brief parliament on the negotiations from 1500 GMT tomorrow.
The novice prime minister left the talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem saying a deal with lenders was «within sight» and that Athens would make a 300 million euro payment to the IMF on Friday. His tone appeared to harden after he ran into a backlash in Athens.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald