Greece fails to make IMF payment as bailout expires

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.

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