Greece Updates

http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jun/30/greek-debt-crisis-day-of-decision-for-tsipras

And comments from the readers

• 4h agoSummary: Greece on its own after IMF default
• 6h agoIMF: Greece didn't make its payment
• 6h agoHistoric moment: Greece in arrears to the IMF
• 7h agoGreece bailout just 15 minutes from expiring....
• 8h agoVIDEO: Dijsselbloem says Greece will be in default tomorrow
• 8h agoFitch downgrades Greece, warns default risks are high
• 9h agoDeputy Greek PM: Referendum may not happen

4h ago20:17

Summary: Greece on its own after IMF default

And that’s it... Another day for the history books, with:

• Greece making an unprecedented default at the IMF:
• Losing the protection of its second bailout...
• ...and sensationally asking for a third package....
• Eurozone finance ministers have already warned a 3rd deal will be tough
• In Athens, campaigners for a Yes vote on Sunday hit the streets.
• Fitch downgraded Greece, on fears of a looming default,
• And European stock markets fell again

Here’s the full story.

Greek failure to make IMF payment deals historic blow to eurozone

Athens left without financial lifeline following fortnight of non-stop brinkmanship at highest level of EU leadership

 

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We’ll be back with a new liveblog in the morning, to do it all again. Thanks for reading, commenting, and your help. Goodnight! GW

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4h ago20:15

Confirmation that a 3rd bailout will be very hard to agree:

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5h ago19:54

The Guardian isn’t the only UK paper leading on Greece tomorrow -- the crisis is also splashed on the FT (again!) and The Scotsman, plus the International New York Times.

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5h ago19:24

 Demonstrators gather during a rally organized by supporters of the YES vote for the upcoming referendum in front of the Athens Parliament, hours before Greece defaulted. Photograph: Aristidis Vafeiadakis/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Our Europe editor, Ian Traynor, captures the historic nature of tonight’s events (I’ve added links to earlier points in the blog):

Greece is left alone insolvent and almost bankrupt today after five years of €240bn in European bailouts dried up and the country became the first in the European Union to default on its creditors. The country failed to make a €1.5bn payment to the International Monetary Fund on time and thrust the eurozone into an emergency.

The long-running debt debacle left Greece on the brink of financial collapse, worsening recent years of wrenching austerity, and represented a historic blow to a Europe committed to the irreversibility of its 16-year-old single currency.

The deadline on Greece’s bailout programmes, inaugurated in 2010, ended at midnight. The country was left without a financial lifeline for the first time since.

In a sudden referendum called on creditors’ bailout terms which formally no longer exist, Greeks are to vote on Sunday on what EU leaders say is a choice between quitting or staying in the euro.

Following a fortnight of non-stop brinkmanship at the highest level of EU leadership over how to resolve the impasse over Greece’s financial rescue, the radical leftwing government of the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, tabled surprise new proposals on Tuesday, demanding that the bailout concluding yesterday be rolled over into a new two-year programme worth almost €30bn to Greece to be spent on servicing debt.

The demand included calls for a month of bridging finance to avoid the IMF default and for broader debt relief without mentioning Greek concessions in return for acceptance. It was promptly spurned by key creditors as too little too late.

“We won’t negotiate about anything new at all until a referendum, as planned, takes place,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Tuesday. “This evening the programme expires.”

The 19 finance ministers of the single currency bloc talked for merely an hour by teleconference on Tuesday evening and dismissed the last-minute brinkmanship from Tsipras.

But Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the committee, said the ministers would confer again on Wednesday and that Athens was expected to present further proposals on how to resolve the critical situation.....

More, if your nerves can take it, here:

Greek failure to make IMF payment deals historic blow to eurozone

Athens left without financial lifeline following fortnight of non-stop brinkmanship at highest level of EU leadership

 

Read more

Updated at 12.28am BST

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5h ago19:16

 

Katie Allen

Analysts at SocGen agree that any new bailout would take time, which has implications for the ECB in terms of getting its own repayments due in July from Greece.

“Our view is that agreeing on a third bailout will be a lengthy process, which suggests that Greece will miss the ECB payment on 20 July.”

€6.7bn of Greek bonds owned by the ECB mature in July and August, according to this handy breakdown of Greek debts from Reuters.

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5h ago19:13

Greece now joins Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe in arrears at the IMF tonight.

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5h ago19:09