Greece 'cannot afford IMF repayment' in June - minister

Greece cannot make a repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due on 5 June as it does not have the money, the interior minister says.

"The four instalments for the IMF in June are €1.6bn, this money will not be given and is not there to be given," Nikos Voutsis told Greek TV.

Greece has to come to a deal with the IMF and EU to secure the final tranche of its bailout from the institutions. The finance minister meanwhile told the BBC that progress was being made.

'Do their bit'

Yanis Varoufakis said Greece had worked hard to meet its end of the deal with its lenders, and that now it was up to the international institutions to reciprocate.

"Greece has made enormous strides at reaching a deal," he told the Andrew Marr Show. "It is now up to institutions to do their bit. We have met those three-quarters of the way, they need to meet us one-quarter of the way."

That could push the Greek government towards leaving the single currency, otherwise known as Grexit. "It would be a disaster for everyone involved," said Mr Varoufakis.

"It would be a disaster primarily for the Greek social economy, but it would also be the beginning of the end of the common currency project in Europe.

"Once you infuse into people's minds, into investors' minds, the idea that the euro is not indivisible, it will be only a matter of time before the whole thing begins to unravel."

Greece has been shut out of bond markets, and with the current deadlock Athens has been struggling to meet debt obligations and to pay public sector wages and pensions.

(Πηγή: bbc.com)