Euro Officials Back Greek Bailout Tranche, ERT Closure a Factor
Thursday, 01 January 1970
A working group of Euro zone ministers and officials supports Greece's next bailout payment, two Greek finance ministry officials told Reuters on Friday.
The 3.3 billion euro ($4.4 billion) payment was approved by euro zone finance ministers last month, contingent on benchmarks to be met in June on anti-corruption efforts, household debt relief and reforms of the electricity market, the news agency recalled.
The unnamed officials said the Eurogroup Working Group, which comprises mainly deputy finance ministers and senior treasury officials, had now backed the disbursement, paving the way for the currency bloc's finance ministers to sign off on it.
"The [national broadcaster] ERT shutdown certainly helped," one of the two officials told Reuters.
Disbursement of the latest aid tranche, which is due some time this month, would bring the total rescue loans Athens has obtained from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund since mid-2010 to about 210 billion euros.