Greece fails to make IMF payment as bailout expires

A pro-EU protester.
(Image credit: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

Greece missed the deadline to make a €1.6 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, hours after European ministers rejected requests from the country to extend its bailout.

Greece is the first developed country to fail to repay a loan to the IMF. Once the eurozone bailout expired, Greece did not have access to billions of euros in funds, and was unable to make the IMF payment, the BBC reports. Eurogroup chairman and Dutch Finance Minister Jereon Dijsselbloem said that it was "crazy" for the Greek government to expect the bailout to extend past its midnight expiration, since the country did not want to go along with proposals from the European Commission, primarily to raise taxes and cut welfare spending.

On Tuesday night, thousands of protesters marched in Athens to urge Greeks to vote "yes" in a referendum scheduled for Sunday on whether Greece should accept those proposals. Leaders in the EU have said a "no" vote would mean Greece leaving the eurozone.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.