Greece announces full repayment of IMF loans

Greece’s finance ministry on Monday announced that the country has repaid all of its loan obligations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), nearly 11 years after the then government sought a first bailout from institutional lenders.

Another two bailouts followed, the last one being signed, sealed and delivered by the leftist SYRIZA government in the summer of 2015, which also witnessed the announcement of a controversial referendum on a convoluted question put to the vote, capital controls and a snap election in September.

In a statement circulated by the ministry, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras took a distinctly partisan view of the development, saying that the repayment “began, continued and concluded under a New Democracy (ND) government,” – a reference to the current ruling party.

He also referred to a very positive development, the result of an effective economy policy exercised by the Mitsotakis government, and one lauded by the European Stability Mechanism and sending a “positive message” to the markets over Greece’s creditworthiness.
Staikouras said the early repayment of the loans extended by the Fund will save Greek taxpayers 230 million euros.