Greece will default in June without aid from lenders

Athens

GREECE cannot make an upcoming payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on June 5 unless foreign lenders disburse more aid, a senior ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, the latest warning from Athens it is on the verge of default.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's leftist government says it hopes to reach a cash-for-reforms deal in days, although European Union (EU) and IMF lenders are more pessimistic and say talks are moving too slowly for that.

Greek officials now point to a race against the clock to clinch a deal before payments totalling about 1.5 billion euros (S$2.2 billion) to the IMF come due next month, starting with a 300 million euro payment on June 5. "Now is the moment that negotiations are coming to a head. Now is the moment of truth, on June 5," Nikos Filis, spokesman for the ruling Syriza party's lawmakers, told ANT1 television. "If there is no deal by then that will address the current funding problem, th…