Bailed- out Greece in default threat to eurozone

GREECE raised new fears of a eurozone collapse yesterday after its socialist government warned it will miss its latest international loan repayment next week.

Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis, whose Syriza party swept to power in January on a Left- wing, anti- austerity ticket, said his country did not have the £ 1.1billion due to the International Monetary Fund on Friday, June 5.

But he was banking on a deal, “so that the country will be able to breathe. This is the bet”.

The IMF and the EU demand more reforms in exchange for a further £ 5billion.

Disaster

Default now would spark market panic and spell more pain.

Emphasising the extent of its problems later yesterday, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said: “It is now up to the institutions to do their bit. We have met them three- quarters of the way, they need to meet us one- quarter of the way.”

He added that if his country was forced to leave the eurozone: “It would be a disaster for everyone involved, 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 put into investors’ minds the idea that the eurozone isn’t indivisible it will be only a matter of time before the whole thing begins to unravel.”

He hinted that Greek payrolls and pensions took priority over loans and insisted his country had made “enormous strides” in meeting international lending obligations.