Greece will default. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Monday afternoon, Greece will not pay the €1.55 billion (about $1.73 billion) due to the IMF on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal is citing a Greek government official. This is, however, an expected move given the turn things took over the weekend. Earlier on Monday, Business Insider's Lianna Brinded reported that markets were preparing for a Greek default, with analysts at Barclays writing that, "it is almost certain the Greek government will be unable to make the 30 June IMF Payment." (As the FT and others have noted, the missed payment to the IMF is not technically considered a default but instead makes Greece "in arrears" to the IMF, but this is legalese. It is a missed debt payment.) Over the weekend, talks between Greece and its creditors broke down and Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on the issue scheduled for July 5. In response, Greek banks have been closed and capital controls have been put in place. As for what this means to Greece? Well, on the one hand not much, on the other, quite a bit. Technically, Greece missing an IMF payment means they won't be able to get any more funding from the IMF, which was set to release €7.2 billion to Greece with a new agreement. (This is what the July 5 referendum is about.) Greece will be unable to pay back the ECB, which it owes €3.5 billion on July 20. A missed payment to the IMF, of course, isn't good. But given that the bank is an independent consortium of world finance, you could either see it as Greece missing a payment owed to most of the developed world, or as Greece missing a payment to nobody in particular. If Greece were to miss a payment owed to the ECB, Greece is more directly and clearly missing payments owed to other members of the euro. This will be more politically toxic for the leaders of other euro members. And again, Greece is considered "in arrears" to the IMF with a missed payment, and as the FT's Peter Spiegel notes, missing a payment to the ECB also won't be considered a default by S&P. However, these are legal terms that are of greater concern to those holding Greek debt. If Greece misses a payment to the IMF there's a chance they can still work it out — missing a payment to the ECB could put Greece perilously close to an exit from the euro. You can find all of Business Insider's Greece coverage here »SEE ALSO: POLL: How should Greece vote in its bailout referendum? SEE ALSO: Greece asked the ECB for more cash and the ECB said no SEE ALSO: Greek stocks are crashing and the Greek stock market isn't even open Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Take a tour of the $367 million jet that will soon be called Air Force One
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