Special to WorldTribune.com

An unprecedented frenzy of bank withdrawals followed the collapse of talks between Greece’s government and its eurozone lenders as officials confirmed the country can’t make a 1.6 billion Euro payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due by June 30 without a re-worked deal.

Greece’s top negotiator, Euclid Tsakalotos, told Reuters the country could not pay IMF at the moment and echoed comments by radical leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras saying the government would make concessions but that pension cuts were off the table.

“At the moment we haven’t got the money,” Tsakalotos said. “There is no financing, we haven’t got access to the markets, we haven’t got money that hasn’t been paid since the summer of 2014 so obviously we won’t be able to have the money to pay that [the €1.6bn to the IMF].”

Panicked depositors had withdrawn 200 to 250 million Euros a day from Greek banks, but that amount shot up to 400 million on June 15 when negotiations collapsed. Also, bank deposits are at the lowest level since 2004.

“Everybody’s doing it (withdrawing cash),” said Joanna Christofosaki, who was at a Eurobank cash dispenser in Athens. “Our friends have all done it. Nobody wants their money to be worthless tomorrow. Nobody wants to be unable to get at it.”

Christofosaki told the London Guardian she knew people who had “€10,000 somewhere at home” and others who chose to keep their cash at the office.

Tsakalotos berated European and IMF lenders for failing to give ground in negotiations and seeking the bulk of concessions from Athens.

“(Negotiations are) a give and take process, not a convergence on the other side’s initial position,” he said. “They’ve moved a bit on fiscal targets but in most areas, you would be hard pressed to put an A4 paper between what they said in February and what they now say in June. So that seems a bit odd.”

Tsipras, who was elected prime minister this year on a vow to end austerity and raise living standards, has ruled out pension cuts, a point driven home by Tsakalotos.

“It seems to us utterly reasonable that pension cuts should not be on the agenda; pension reform should be on the agenda.”

  Alexis Tsipras, Euro, Greeks rush to withdraw cash as government admits it can’t make IMF payment, International Monetary Fund, WorldTribune.com