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Greece misses a €300 million payment to the IMF and gets a new deadline

Jim Edwards,Reuters   

Greece misses a €300 million payment to the IMF and gets a new deadline
Stock Market2 min read

Alexis Tsipras

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses a news conference after an European Union leaders summit in Brussels, February 12, 2015.

Greece has asked to bundle its four debt payments to the International Monetary Fund that fall due in June so that it can pay them in one batch at the end of the month, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported on Thursday.

The request is expected to be approved by the IMF, the newspaper said. That would mean Greece does not have to pay the first tranche of 300 million euros that falls due on Friday. That chunk of debt was one of the biggest on Greece's repayment schedule.

The Guardian called the failure to meet the original IMF deadline a "new and dangerous phase." The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, admitted that the country was running out of money, The Guardian said:

Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, told Sky News, "objectively speaking, we have until the 30 June because this is when the extension of the agreement with our creditors expires."

But he conceded that "at some point", Greece would be unable to continue making repayments.

Barclays Bank published an analyst's note earlier today that said it expected a run on Greek banks from ordinary depositors "at any point and by any event."

The move came as a surprise to IMF chief Christine Lagarde, who had previously said she expected Greece to stick to its original payment schedule, according to The Telegraph.

Greece faces a total bill of 1.5 billion euros owed to the IMF over four installments this month.

Greece is running out of cash and its euro zone and IMF lenders have yet to come to an agreement on a cash-for-reforms package. The Greek finance ministry in a statement on Thursday asked the lenders to quickly move to more "realistic" proposals than the one offered to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday.

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