Are you sure you want to delete this post?
RTE: IMF confirms Greece did not make repayment"
"The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that Greece did not make a €1.5bn repayment due today.
"The fund said it received a request from Greece for a repayment extension, which its board would consider in due course.
"In a statement, the fund said: "We have informed our Executive Board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared.
"I can also confirm that the IMF received a request today from the Greek authorities for an extension of Greece's repayment obligation that fell due today, which will go to the IMF's Executive Board in due course."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So what does this mean? It depends. According to Paul Krugman as per Business Insider:
"For the past seven years, Krugman argues, the financial noose Europe has placed around Greece's neck has strangled the Greek economy. Each time Europe has loaned Greece money, it has demanded spending cuts in return. And these spending cuts — austerity — have further damaged the Greek economy.
"In the past, every time the situation has come to a head, Greece has caved. And, in the process, it has transformed itself into little more than a financial slave state mired in an economic depression.
"There is no way Greece will ever be able to cut its way to prosperity, Krugman argues. And history suggests that any argument to the contrary is crazy.
"Given that Europe refuses to restructure Greece's debt in a sustainable way and allow the country to try to grow its way out of its misery, Greece has no choice but to default and withdraw."
---------------------------------------
Should we worry?