ATHENS: Greece has informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it plans to defer all four payments due in June, including the scheduled €300m (£218m, $335m) loan repayment due on 5 June, to the end of the month. Newspaper reports said that using a rarely used procedure permitted under IMF rules, the Greek government plans to lump all payments due this month amounting to €1.5bn (£1.1bn, $1.68bn) in a single payment on 30 June.
The Financial Times reported that Greece had made the request late on 4 June to defer the payments. This was confirmed by IMF spokesman Gerry Rice, who said the rule allows countries to “address the administrative difficulty of making multiple payments in a short period.” The newspaper said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is under intense pressure from his left-wing Syriza party to withhold payment to IMF as a sign of defiance to the terms sought by international creditors to access the €7.2bn bailout package.
According to a Greek government official, Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande spoke late Thursday evening via conference call, Reuters reported.
