Greece will not make June IMF repayment, says minister

Interior minister says ‘this money will not be given and is not there to be given’

Greece will not make a debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund due next month as it does not have the money, the country’s interior minister Nikos Voutsis has said. Photograph: EPA
Greece will not make a debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund due next month as it does not have the money, the country’s interior minister Nikos Voutsis has said. Photograph: EPA

Greece will not make a debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund due next month as it does not have the money, the country's interior minister said on Sunday.

"The four instalments for the IMF in June are €1.6 billion ($1.8 billion), this money will not be given and is not there to be given," Nikos Voutsis told Greek Mega TV's weekend show.

Shut out of bond markets and with bailout aid locked, Athens has been scraping state coffers to meet debt obligations and to pay wages and pensions.

Meanwhile Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that Greece has made "enormous strides" at reaching a deal with its international lenders to avert bankruptcy.

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"It is now up to the institutions to do their bit. We have met them three quarters of the way, they need to meet us one quarter of the way," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

Varoufakis also said it would be “catastrophic” if Greece left the euro, predicting it would be would be “the beginning of the end of the common currency project”.