Greece Misses IMF Payment
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Greece slipped deeper into its financial abyss after the bailout program it has relied on for five years expired at midnight on Tuesday and the country failed to repay a loan due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
With its failure to repay the roughly $1.8bn to the IMF, Greece became the first developed country to fall into arrears on payments to the fund. The last country to do so was Zimbabwe in 2001.
After Greece made a last-ditch effort to extend its bailout, eurozone finance ministers decided in a teleconference late on Tuesday that there was no way they could reach a deal before the deadline.
"It would be crazy to extend the programme," said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbleom, who heads the eurozone finance ministers' body known as the Eurogroup. "So that cannot happen and will not happen."
"The program expires tonight," Dijsselbleom said.
IMF spokesman Gerry Rice confirmed that Athens had missed its payment deadline.
"We have informed our executive board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared," he said.
He said the board would consider a Greek request to extend the loan.
Overall, Greece owes the IMF close to $40bn, Al Jazeera reported.
In Athens on Tuesday, thousands of Greeks rallied in favour of the country remaining with the EU, in contrast to anti-EU protests on Monday.
The European Commission - one of Greece's "troika" of creditors along with the IMF and the eurozone's European Central Bank - wants Athens to raise taxes and cut welfare spending to meet its debt obligations.