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Updated 8.47pm
THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY Fund (IMF) has confirmed that Greece will be bundling four debt repayments due in June at the end of the month, averting the possibility of a Greek default Friday.
“The Greek authorities have informed the Fund today that they plan to bundle the country’s four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said, citing rules allowing debtor countries to regroup “multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month.”
This means it will miss Friday’s repayment of €300 million.
Greece’s first €300 million payment had been due on Friday, with cash-strapped Athens slated to hand another €1.3 billion over on later dates in June.
The move comes at a critical time for Greece and its IMF, European Union and European Central Bank creditors, as they push for a breakthrough in four-month negotiations to unlock €7.2 billion in bailout funds Athens desperately needs to honour debt payments.
With divisions still remaining on reform and austerity conditions demanded of Athens in exchange for the funds, worries of a possible default have risen with the flurry of debt repayments looming.
“We used an option that IMF rules offer us, and which give us additional time for negotiating,” a Greek government source said.
The last country to take this kind of action was Zambia in the 1970s, the Financial Times reports.
Greece has presented a 47-page blueprint on how to overhaul the struggling Greek economy without resorting to harsh austerity measures and cuts.
Creditors, meanwhile, have tabled a rival plan drawn up without Greece at a meeting in Berlin on Monday attended by the leaders of Germany and France.
Discussions that have taken place throughout the week are slated to resume on Friday.
© – AFP 2015. Additional reporting by The Associated Press and Nicky Ryan. Originally published 6.47pm
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Wellness retreat with Leigh Arnold. The woman has notions about herself!
@The Thinker: Master begrudgery there!!!!
@The Thinker:
Go forbid anyone having notions about themselves, Bless us & Save us from this curse. Is it true @The Tinker that you’ve started a campaign to bring back the potato as the main food in ireland, just like in the good ole days of the 1800’s.
I went to Ibiza for the first time in August of 2018. I stayed in the north too near Benirras and loved it. It is such an open, tolerant and healthy place. Its really just the SW of the island that has the club scene and even on that side there is beautiful coast and quiet places to take in the view of Es Vedra and more. The swimming in crystal clear torquoise water is pure bliss and healing alone. I camped in a pine forest on a cliff and the dark skies those nights were as good as it gets. There is also a ‘growing’ regenerative living culture which started at ‘Casita Verde’ and is now catching on around the island. I’ve always loved islands including our own and would love to some how do a stint on Ibiza. But it can be very expensive for obvious reasons. Being part of a sustainable community involved in permaculture etc would help greatly. I lived abroad for some years and since coming back I have been unable to settle back into life here as I find it frustrating and there is still a mindset that dominates parts of this country that is mindnumbing. Good on you guys for making the move and going for it! May bump into you next time. :)
Great to hear Leigh and her family are doing well. I could really do with a few days at their retreat, sounds like a really beautiful place. No travel for me anytime soon.
Are they really trying to run it in? Can they not do a postcard from Tory island or somewhere we can actually visit this year?
I want to go to Ibiza!
Strange time to be advertising this.
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