(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was defiant on Monday after the collapse of last-ditch debt talks raised fears of Greece's exit from the euro and the Athens stock market spiralled downward.
Tsipras said Greece would "wait patiently" until its creditors - the International Monetary Fund and the European Union - become "more realistic".
He lambasted the creditors for "political opportunism" in trying to force Athens to further trim its pension system, a concession the leftist anti-austerity government has steadfastly refused to make.
"One can only see a political purposefulness in the insistence of creditors on new cuts in pensions after five years of looting under the bailouts," Tsipras told Greek newspaper Efimerida Ton Syntakton.
But Athens immediately came under intense fire from its EU partners, with a German finance ministry spokesman saying "the ball is in Greece's court" and French President Francois Hollande urging Athens not to "waste time".
"This message is for Greece," Hollande told reporters at the Paris Air Show. "It should not wait and should restart discussions with the institutions... Let's not waste time."
European Commission vice-president Jyrki Katainen, for his part, said: "A solution is possible but this depends on the Greek government.... we continue to hope."
Quoted by the Austrian daily Der Standard, he said: "There is a lot of goodwill... You can always provide more liquidity but this is nothing without structural reforms."
Greek officials on Sunday blamed the failure of the latest round of talks on the IMF, the country's most hardline creditor. "The demands of the creditors are irrational," an irate Greek government source said.
But an EU spokeswoman said the EU and IMF have already made "major concessions" to Greece. "It's not a one-way street," Annika Breidthardt told a Press conference. She added: "The concessions... made and the flexibility that has been shown are already quite substantial."
The Athens Stock Exchange plunged 7.14 per cent in early trade on Monday before recovering to a 4.5 per cent drop at midday, with bank stocks especially hard hit.
Piraeus Bank nosedived 11.02 per cent, Alpha fell 5.56 per cent, National Bank of Greece dropped 11.43 per cent and Eurobank was down 5.34 per cent.
Greece's main market was on a rollercoaster last week, losing 5.92 per cent on Friday on news that the fed-up eurozone nations were making contingency plans for a Greek default, after rallying 8.16 per cent just the day before.
Stock markets around the world fell on Monday, suffering their first bout of significant contagion from the Greek crisis after 11th hour talks between the near-bankrupt country and its creditors collapsed.
The losses were broad across risk assets. Major stock indexes fell sharply, as did crude oil prices, while the euro weakened against the dollar. Gold and silver rose on the day.
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