Greece Warns That It Will Probably Miss Next Month's Debt Payment

By Scott Neuman / NPR

Published May 24, 2015 at 4:08 AM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (center) gestures next to Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis (left) and Interior and Administrative Reconstruction Minister Nikos Voutsis. Voutsis says Greece may miss its next debt payment.

Greece is warning that unless it can reach a deal with its creditors, it will be unable to make a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund next month.

Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis, speaking on Greek television, said bluntly that four installments totaling 1.6 billion euros ($1.76 billion) "will not be given and is not there to be given."

As Reuters writes that Greece "has been shut out of bond markets and [has had its] bailout aid locked." Athens, it says "has been scraping state coffers to meet debt obligations and to pay wages and pensions."

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"After four months of talks with its euro zone partners and the IMF, the country's leftist-led government is still scrambling for a deal that could release up to 7.2 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in remaining aid to avert bankruptcy."

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tells the BBC that his country had tried hard to meet the terms of international lenders and that now it is up to creditor nations to reciprocate.

"Greece has made enormous strides at reaching a deal," he told the the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

"It is now up to institutions to do their bit. We have met them three-quarters of the way, they need to meet us one-quarter of the way."

In January, Greece elected an anti-austerity left-wing party and since then the government has sought to soften the terms of its IMF and European Union bailout agreement. But creditor nations, led by Germany, have so far stood firm against any change in the deal.