ATHENS—Greece said Sunday that it won't have the money
it is due to repay to the International Monetary Fund next month
unless it strikes a deal with international creditors over further
rescue funding.
Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis told privately owned television
station Mega that Greece is scheduled to repay €1.6
billion ($1.76 billion) to the IMF between June 5-19, but the
payments cannot be met.
"This money will not be given," he said. "It does not
exist."
Despite months of negotiations between Greece's leftist-led
government and creditors—the European Union and the
IMF—over the country's bailout, little progress has been
made.
The ruling Syriza party, elected on an antiausterity ticket in
January, opposes reforms to the labor market and pension system
demanded by international creditors that argue that Greece must
complete these economic overhauls to achieve sustainable growth and
solvency.
A default on Greece's obligations to the IMF could spark heavy
deposit withdrawals from Greek banks and force capital controls,
deepening the country's economic crisis, economists say.
Talks are continuing between the two sides in Brussels, though
hopes have been dashed that a recent reshuffle of Greece's
renegotiating team will accelerate a deal.
The reshuffle effectively sidelined Finance Minister Yanis
Varoufakis, whose combative style has alienated many European
officials. In his latest comments, Mr. Varoufakis told the New York
Times Magazine last week that he had secretly taped negotiations
with his European peers in April, a breach of etiquette that raised
eyebrows around Europe.
On Sunday, Mr. Varoufakis said that he often records his
interventions and comments on his mobile phone to better brief
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Greek cabinet, as was the
case at the April meeting in Riga, Latvia. Mr. Varoufakis added
that despite the press incorrectly reporting that he was insulted
by his peers at the Latvia meeting and that he had lost his temper,
he refused to leak any recording to the press that would have set
the record straight.
"Perhaps we should query European institutions in which
decisions of monumental importance are made, on behalf of Europe's
citizenry, but in which minutes are neither taken nor published,"
he wrote on his personal blog.
"Secrecy and a gullible press do not augur well for Europe's
democracy," he added.
Write to Stelios Bouras at stelios.bouras@wsj.com
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