Greece repaid 1.54 billion euros ($1.695 billion) and accrued interest to the European Central Bank on a maturing government bond on Wednesday. The repayment was made after the country tapped cash from a bailout disbursement worth 7.5 billion euros made to Athens by the European Stability Mechanism (ESB) late in June, following the successful conclusion of the country’s performance review.
An official that declined to be named told Reuters that Greece had made the payment. The same official said that Greece made total payments of 2.64 billion euros for a number of debts, including the ECB-held bond and other maturing government paper held by other Eurozone Central Banks.
The payment is a debt milestone for this year made possible following the ESM’s disbursement of a loan that is part of a 10.3-billion-euro installment — the second of Greece’s third bailout that had been agreed to following lengthy negotiations in August 2015. The June payment was made possible following a number of austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors from the EC, ECB, ESM and IMF.
The ESM says that another 2.8 billion euros will be forthcoming once additional reforms are made on top of the ones that have already been put in place, including tax hikes and a contingency mechanism to slash spending in the case of budget divergence.
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