Eurogroup approves 8.3 billion euro installment for Greece

Eurogroup approved the vital installment of 6.3 billion euros by the end of April in a meeting which took place in Zappeion, Athens. In total, the 8.3 billion disbursement will come in three parts, the biggest of which is estimated to possibly be given even before Easter.

In detail, during the press conference which followed, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem underlined that EU Finance Ministers agreed that they will support Greece in the allocation of EFSF funds, as well as its indications of growth. The Hellenic side has undertaken to explain its plans for the economy within the coming weeks.

The first mammoth-sized installment of 6.3 billion will be disbursed by the end of April, with two more installments of around 1 billion each, to follow, in June and July.




This means that Europe has “green-lighted” the continuation of the support given to Greece by the IMF, which -in turn- was awaiting the final approval of the Hellenic programme by the EU. It is currently estimated that these IMF funds will be given the go-ahead at the same time as the EFSF installment, though it has not yet been made abundantly clear if the Fund will disburse one or two of the remaining installments.

In his own statements, EFSF head Klaus Regling clarified that the Mechanism will give Greece (in three installments) a total of 8.2 billion euro (which contradicted Dijsselbloem and Rehn's statements of a total of 8.34 bn.), starting with 6.3 billion by the end of April, under the provision that by the 10th of April, all that has been agreed upon between lenders and the Greek government and are underlined in the Troika's latest report, will have been covered. This basically means that for each installment, there will be prerequisites, such as:
-The Reduction of the profit margin of pharmacies, during May
-The activation of a new plan concerning the recovery of debts and the elimination of “third-party” taxation until June
-The revisiting of supplementary pensions and the move of the supplementary Funds to the single Private Fund by July.

At the same time, the Troika is expected to review and evaluate the provisions of the bill of law and the next tax bill that the government is currently preparing.