Greece staggered deeper into the economic unknown last night, declaring that it would miss the €1.6-billion (about R20-billion) debt repayment instalment to the IMF. The default means it loses the protection of Europe's bailout programme. With parties embroiled in the Greek debt crisis making despairing attempts to avoid calamity, the government set new limits on its domestic pension payments as the country's cash began running out. There were reports of panicked shoppers stocking up on medicine and baby formula.Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pleaded with creditors yesterday to extend the current bailout programme "for a short period of time" in order to avert a technical default until a new loan package was in force.A letter to them suggested aid from the European Stability Mechanism to cover all the country's financial needs for two years while a debt-restructuring plan was negotiated and implemented.He made no mention of any of the economic reform measures European negotiators have sought for months.Eurozone finance ministers called an emergency meeting to discuss the last-minute proposal.Tsipras and his creditors are brawling amid a landscape transformed by his shock call for a referendum on Sunday. While he labels it a vote on austerity, his counterparts in Berlin and Paris say it's nothing less than a decision on whether to remain in the euro.The ballot may be rendered moot by the unpaid bill to the IMF. Greece would become the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the IMF and the European Central Bank seems likely to respond by withdrawing its lifeline."A no in the referendum would make it almost impossible for the IMF and Europe to provide support for Greece beyond what would de facto be humanitarian relief," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London."Greece would have to issue IOUs as a first step to Grexit."At stake, beyond Greece's fate, is the credibility of the currency union conceived as the crowning achievement of post-World War 2 European integration.Whatever happens in the next few days, Greeks - already limited to bank withdrawals of à60 a day - will find it impossible to resume life as before. For the poorest, it will be a struggle to survive. ..