Europe ends Greece's 8-year bailout saga

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IANS | 22 Jun, 2018
The Finance Ministers of the Eurozone, the Eurogroup, has reached an agreement that will put an end to Greece's third bailout program, the French Finance Minister said.

The agreement will end the eight-year debt-relief program for Greece, in which the country received 300 billion euros in three financial assistance programs as agreed in 2010, 2011 and 2015 in exchange for structural reforms and fiscal adjustments.

Bruno Le Maire told the media after the late Thursday night meeting that the Eurozone nations have reached an agreement on the bailout program for Greece.

He described it as a good deal that should allow the debt-ridden country to look to the future with confidence and accelerate its recovery, Efe news reported.

Eurozone President and Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno said at a press conference shortly after the meeting "after eight long years Greece will finally be graduating from its financial assistance".

He also confirmed that Athens will not need any additional bailouts.

The ministers finalised the last revision of the third bailout program after verifying that Athens has complied with the 88 requirements, and consequently approved a final disbursement of 15 billion euros.

This will provide Greece with a financial cushion of 24 billion euros, with which Athens could pay off its debts in the next 22 months without having to resort financing on the market to support itself.

With this last disbursement, Greece will have received a total of 61.9 billion euros of the 86 billion euros that were made available to it in the third bailout, agreed in 2015.

Taking into account the two agreements reached in 2010 and 2011, the total aid amounts to 288.7 billion.

However, the key part of the agreement are the relief measures that should allow the Greek debt, which is close to 180 per cent of GDP, to be sustainable and the markets to regain confidence in Athens' ability to honour their commitments.