No payment extensions for Greece, IMF warns

The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday the group will not let Greece delay payments it’s scheduled to make next month as part of its massive bailout.

“Payment delays have not been granted by the board of the IMF the last 30 years,” Managing Director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference during the IMF-World Bank spring meetings here.

“We have never had an advanced economy asking for a payment delay,” Lagarde said.

She added that such a delay would be equivalent to a refinancing of the loan.

Greece’s borrowing costs soared Thursday as yields on its bonds climbed to their highest point since 2012, Bloomberg News reported.

Lagarde’s comments followed a Financial Times report Thursday that Greek officials had informally approached the IMF inquiring about agreeing to a delay in its payments. If it misses its payments, Greece would effectively default.

Greece owes its creditors — the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission — about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) next month. The debt-racked country is struggling to scrape together the cash. It made a 460 million euro payment ($493.4 million) in April.

Greece is also trying to unlock 7.2 billion in euros ($7.6 billion) in additional bailout money, but negotiations with its creditors over easing the changes it must implement to receive the cash are at a standstill.

Greece is struggling to make the changes — including increasing taxes, cutting government spending and restructuring pensions — with its economy flailing.

“My advice” to Greece “has not changed,” Lagarde said. “My advice is to get on with the work” of the overhaul.

Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is likely to meet with IMF officials and representatives of other creditors during the World Bank-IMF spring meetings this week.