ANKARA
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced late Thursday that Greece had asked to delay its loan payment due Friday to the end of the month.
The value of the euro rose with the news to around 1.211 to the dollar on Friday morning, up from about 1.180 in late trading on Thursday.
Traders had been worried about a potential Greek default on Friday, when a payment of 300 milllion euros ($311.1 million) was due to be made.
However, the Greek government made it clear earlier in the week that it intended to seek a delay.
In a press conference on Thursday, a spokesman for the IMF, told reporters the organization's regulations permit a country to bundle payments to the end of the current month. Only one other country has ever made use of this regulation -Zambia in 1986.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras flew to Athens from Brussels on Friday to put the bailout proposals to parliament for approval. There have been a number of statements from Greek government leaders threatening to reject the bailout proposals.
Meanwhile, negotiations continue in Brussels to work out what Tsipras has called the final details of an accord that will keep Greece from running out of funds for public services and banks.
