Greece has repaid its debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) two years ahead of schedule, the Greek Ministry of Finance announced on Monday.
Greece’s Finance Minister, Christos Staikouras, hailed the early payment as “a very positive development” that would mean significant savings in debt servicing costs totalling 230 million euros.
“This closes a chapter that opened in May 2010, when Greece appealed to the fund for financial support,” Staikouras said in his statement.
READ MORE: Greece on track to repay last of IMF loans by end of March.
“We are continuing, fully aware of the great difficulties and the new external challenges… to make Greece comprehensively stronger, with its economy more productive, extroverted and more socially just.”
Greece’s European Union bailout lenders gave the formal go-ahead last week for the early repayment of the outstanding loans worth 1.86 billion euros.
READ MORE: European Union approves early repayment plan of Greek bailout loans to IMF.
Between 2010 and 2018, three successive bailouts totalling some 260 billion euros prevented Greece from going bankrupt and exiting the shared euro currency.
Despite exiting the bailout program in 2018, Greece remains under an enhanced surveillance program created by European lenders to monitor spending, an arrangement due to end later this year.
Source: AP News.
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