THE Hellas draws her early repayment up to 5 billion euros from bailout loans to her countries euro zone this year as it seeks to return to normalcy after the debt crisis of the previous decade, two government officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
The eurozone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) they lent Greece about 280 billion euros during the crisis on the condition that Greece impose tough austerity measures, Reuters reports.
Austerity has reduced public sector wages and pensions, but in recent years the economy has rebounded, leading to a series of early loan repayments.
An unnamed official told Reuters the government planned to repay between 2.5 billion and 5 billion euros to eurozone countries, “probably in the second half of the year.”
The same official said this would help the country create room for more bond issuance without increasing its debt, while adding liquidity to the Greek bond market.
About 70% of the country’s debt is held by its official creditors, the eurozone and the European Central Bank.
Meanwhile, a second official confirmed the amount and timing.
Greece recently regained its investment grade after 13 years languishing in the junk category, which helped it attract strong demand from foreign investors for its bond issues.
With the scheduled payment this year, Greece will have repaid around €15 billion to €17 billion of the first bailout loans.
In 2022, the country repaid the IMF two years earlier from the schedule and in 2023 it repaid 5 billion euros from loans to eurozone countries.
The country’s third bailout expired in 2018, and since then it has relied solely on debt markets for its borrowing needs.
Tags: Reuters Greece plans early repayment billion euros loans year
