Reuters: Greece will repay early loans of up to 5 billion euros from Eurozone countries

Greece plans to repay up to 5 billion euros of loans it took from eurozone countries under the first memorandum this year as it seeks to return to normality after the debt crisis of the past decade, two government officials said in Reuters.

The Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave Greece around 280 billion euros in loans during the crisis, with the lion’s share coming from the ESM and EFSF, conditional on austerity measures being imposed.

Government agent stated that between 2.5 and 5 billion euros is planned to be repaid to Eurozone countries, “probably in the second half of the year”. He stated that this will help make room for more bond issues without increasing the Greek debt and will increase liquidity in the shallow Greek bond market. A second government official confirmed the amount and timing.

Greece has recently regained investment grade status, which has helped it generate strong demand from foreign investors for its bond issues.

With the repayment scheduled for this year, Greece will have repaid around 15 to 17 billion euros of the first bailout loans it took out. In 2022, the country repaid the IMF two years ahead of schedule and in 2023 repaid 5 billion euros of loans to eurozone countries.

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