Greece won’t pay €1.6b IMF debt, could default, says minister

Greece won’t be able to pay the €1.6 billion it owes the International Monetary Fund next month, unless it secures further rescue funding from international creditors, according to one of the country’s ministers.

Nikos Voutsis, Greek Minister of the Interior, said that Greece will be unable to repay the IMF on schedule next month.

“The installment to the IMF won’t be paid,” Nikos Voutsis told Mega TV.

“The installments for the IMF in June are 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion). This money will not be given. There isn’t any to be given. This is a known fact,” he added.

Mr Voutsis made his remarks following a warning by Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, that if progress is not made it could be the beginning of the end for the euro project.

Mr Varoufakis said in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show:

“It would be a disaster for everyone involved, it would be a disaster primarily for the Greek social economy, but it would also be the beginning of the end for the common currency project in Europe.

‘Whatever some analysts are saying about firewalls, these firewalls won’t last long once you put and infuse into people’s minds, into investors’ minds, that the eurozone is not indivisible.

“It will only be a certain amount of time before the whole thing begins to unravel.”

On Saturday the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said that bargaining with creditors could soon come to a close.

 

Tsipras told the left-wing Syriza’s party’s central committee:

“We are on the final stretch of a painful and tough period shaped by the government’s negotiations with the institutions. Rest assured that in this negotiation we will not accept humiliating terms.

“The overwhelming majority of Greek people want a solution and not just an agreement – they support the government in this tough negotiation.”