ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece will repay the final tranches of bailout loans owed to the International Monetary Fund by the end of March, two years ahead of schedule, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told Reuters on Monday.
“Greece has officially submitted a request for the full repayment of the outstanding balance of its IMF loans. The relevant procedure has been launched and is expected to be completed at the end of March,” he said.
The country, which received more than 260 billion euros in bailout loans from the European Union and the IMF during its decade-long financial crisis, has relied solely on bond markets for its financing needs since exiting its third bailout in 2018.
Staikouras said that despite increasing spending to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Greece will return to a primary surplus from 2023 onwards, as promised to its lenders.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
