EXCLUSIVE Greece to repay final IMF loans by March, obtain main surplus in 2023-FinMin

ATHENS, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Greece will repay the ultimate tranches of bailout loans owed to the Worldwide Financial Fund by the tip of March, two years forward of schedule, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras advised Reuters on Monday.

The nation, which acquired greater than 260 billion euros in bailout loans from the European Union and the IMF throughout its decade-long monetary disaster, has relied solely on bond markets for its financing wants since exiting its third bailout in 2018.

Since then, it has additionally made a number of early repayments to the IMF and now owes 1.9 billion euros ($2.15 billion) in loans due by 2024, the final batch of a complete 28 billion euros that the Washington-based Fund offered between 2010 and 2014.

“Greece has formally submitted a request for the complete compensation of the excellent steadiness of its IMF loans. The related process has been launched and is predicted to be accomplished on the finish of March,” Staikouras stated in an interview.

Greece stays the euro zone’s most indebted nation, with public debt seen at 189.6% of gross home product in 2022. The transfer is predicted to scale back the debt by about one proportion level and reserve it about 50 million euros in rate of interest funds.

Staikouras stated that regardless of growing spending to cope with the affect of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greece will return to a main surplus from 2023 onwards, as promised to its lenders, because of stronger progress and better finances revenues.

This is able to be a big step because it seeks to return to funding grade standing by 2023.

The European Central Financial institution’s hawkish flip has despatched Greek bond yields to their highest ranges since April 2020, with 10-year bonds now yielding round 2.5% in contrast with 0.9% in September 2021.

“Greece implements a prudent and accountable fiscal coverage and an insightful debt issuing technique, with a purpose to restrict the results of the truth that, regardless of the consecutive credit standing upgrades over the last two years, the nation has not but achieved funding grade standing,” he stated.

“Concerning 2023 onwards, we are going to shift in the direction of the achievement of life like main surpluses,” he added with out offering additional particulars.

($1 = 0.8846 euros)

Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas
Modifying by Tomasz Janowski

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.