Reuters on Wednesday reported that the Mitsotakis government in Athens is considering the early repayment of another batch of IMF loans in 2020, months after covering a portion of the “expensive borrowing” extended by the Fund during a previous bailout.
The news agency quotes Greek FinMin Christos Staikouras as saying the repayment aims to reduce long-term costs as well as to convince European creditors to lower mandated fiscal targets that Athens must achieve until 2022.
Staikouras was quoted on Wednesday as saying: “It is possible for a new early repayment of an additional part of IMF loans in 2020… The new early repayment should be up to a certain amount that would allow the IMF to keep its presence in Greece until the end of the post-program surveillance period.”
No figures were cited.
Greece owes the IMF 5.5 billion euros, borrowing extended during the first and second bailout of the country over the past decade.
