Debt-relief finally arrives for Greece

Last night’s 11 hour marathon talk between Greece and its creditors has finally yielded some results. Creditors have finally agreed to provide short, medium and long term relief to better manage Greece’s 180% debt to GDP ratio.

According to the statement from Euro group finance ministers,

The Euro group agreed today on a package of debt measures which will be phased in progressively, as necessary to meet the agreed benchmark on gross financing needs and will be subject to the pre-defined conditionality of the ESM program.

Additional good news is that the Euro group has managed to keep International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the game.

• In addition to the debt relief, Greece will now receive €10.3 billion as part of the bailout to avoid any defaults this summer among which €7.5 billion worth of cash will be given as early as next month.
• As part of its debt relief measures, Greece will receive a short-term re-profiling of its loans, while more expensive debt could be “swapped” with cheaper loans to bring down the country’s overall financing costs.
• Greece may also receive around €1.9 billion in profits held by the European Central Bank (ECB) from Greek bonds to pay back its loans by mid-2018.
• Greece will also receive long-term loan re-structuring that will keep financing cost below 20% of GDP till 2060.

Greece surprised all with €2.4 billion primary surplus in first quarter.