Eurozone agrees to release next bailout funding for Greece

BRUSSELS, May 25 (KUNA) -- Finance ministers of the 19-member Eurogrpup have agreed to unlock the next tranche of bailout to Greece, worth EUR 10.3 billion, after the Greek government recently adopted more austerity measures as demanded by its international creditors.
"This is very good news, already this part of the agreement today is very good news because it shows that the program is fully back on track that Greece has delivered a lot and we are making a good progress there," Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem told a press conference early hours of Wednesday after the ministerial meeting.
He also announced that that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) "has expressed its intention to recommended to the fund board to approve a financial arrangement before the end of the year, so the IMF will go to the board on the basis of this agreement to be part again of that support program for Greece." On his part, Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the Eurozone bailout fund, known as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), told the joint press conference that the bailout would be paid out to Greece in several disbursements.
He noted that the first disbursement of EUR 7.5 billion to cover Greece debt service applications and to start helping domestic areas that have accumulated could happen in the second half of June if all preconditions were in place.
The following disbursement by the ESM would then take place after summer and be used to further government areas, but also to debt services payments, he added.
The Eurogroup also exchanged views on the economic situation and the outlook in the euro area, following the European Commission's presentation of its spring 2016 economic forecast, published on May 3. (end) nk.hb