Greece has notified the International Monetary Fund that it will not make a scheduled €300m loan repayment today after opposition to a bailout compromise with creditors erupted inside the governing party.
Following a rarely used procedure permitted under IMF rules, the Greek government intends to bundle all the payments it owes in June, totalling €1.5bn, and transfer it at the end of the month. Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has come under intense pressure from within his left-wing Syriza party to withhold payment to the IMF as a sign of the country’s defiance in the face of terms required by its international creditors to access a desperately needed €7.2bn in bailout aid.
But as recently as early yesterday morning, Mr Tsipras had signalled his government intended to make the payment. Asked by reporters after a four-hour meeting in Brussels with Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, whether the instalment would be paid, the Greek prime minister said: “Don’t worry about that.”