Euro area and IMF agreement on financial support programme for Greece
03.05.2010
Following euro area and IMF agreement of 2 May on a three-year financial support programme for Greece with a total of ˆ 110 billion,
Commissioner Rehn and IMF Managing Director Strauss-Kahn said they were confident that Greece would rise to the challenge and succeed.
To support the Greek government's efforts to get its economy back on track, euro area Member States on 2 May pledged a three-year programme total of
ˆ80 billion in bilateral loans. Under the conditions set out in the Eurogroup statement of 11 April, up to ˆ 30 billion out of this programme will be made
available for 2010. Its first disbursment will be made by 19 May.
In addition, IMF reached an agreement with the Greek authorities to support this program with a stand-by arrangement of about ˆ30 billion, bringing the joint
commitment to a total financing of ˆ110 billion.
Greece (11) -- Analyses -- 2010
More about the crisis
03.05.2010
Years of unrestrained spending, cheap lending and failure to implement financial reforms left Greece badly exposed when the global economic downturn struck.
This whisked away a curtain of partly fiddled statistics to reveal debt levels and deficits that exceeded limits set by the eurozone.
National debt, put at ˆ300 billion ($413.6 billion), is bigger than the country's economy, with some estimates predicting it will reach 120 percent of gross domestic
product in 2010. The country's deficit - how much more it spends than it takes in - is 12.7 percent.
Bulgarian