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Greece receives new bailout funds

Tuesday, 21 June 2016 10:08 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 21 June 2016 10:08 AM ]

The managing director of the EU agency European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, January 26, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Cash-strapped Greece has received 7.5 billion euros (8.3 billion dollars) in promised bailout money from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

“ESM disbursed today 7.5 billion euros to Greece,” said Klaus Regling, the head of the ESM, after meeting Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in Athens on Tuesday.

He further said that the organization would continue to give loans to Athens under favorable conditions.

“We want to help the Greek economy for the entire period,” he said.

However, he said, “We don’t know exactly — given that forecasts are very uncertain — what the needs in a few years time will be.”

Late in May, finance ministers from the 19-member monetary club of the European Union struck a crucial deal with Greece’s economically-strained government to extend further bailout money to the country.

The Eurozone finance ministers agreed to give Greece access to a 10.3-billion-euro (11.48-billion-dollar) tranche of bailout funds.

The 10.3 billion euros is part of the long-delayed second installment of Greece’s third bailout loan, which was agreed on last August and is worth €86 billion ($95.9 billion).

The developments came after the Greek parliament passed a new raft of spending cuts and tax rises in order to unblock the aid, much-needed to help the government repay the country’s debt within the next few months.

The creditors have already granted Greece two bailout loans — one in 2010 and the other in 2012 — worth a total of €240 billion ($272 billion).

An economic crisis hit Greece back in 2009. Since then, the country has witnessed a high unemployment rate and numerous labor protests.

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