Greece and Cyprus EU-IMF bailout funds due

Greece and Cyprus EU-IMF bailout funds due

Eurozone finance ministers have recently met in Brussels to discuss Cypriot and Greek bailout payments. The first €3bn has already been approved for Cyprus within the country’s bailout plan. The next financial instalment for Greece has yet to be signed off by ministers but is set to be in the near future as the country continues to regenerate its economy.

Another country involved in the international bailout plan is Slovenia, which is expected to appeal to the European authorities in the wake of Greece and Cyprus’ aid. However, the Slovenian government have attempted to re-establish the banking system, privatise various state owned companies, and raise taxes in a bid to prevent a bailout.

From Greece’s €240bn bailout which was first agreed in 2010, €7.5bn is due to paid out in order to compensate for bondholders and workers’ wages and pensions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is part of the troika and one of the major international lenders involved in the bailout plan had praised the way Greece has handled its budget deficit over the last three years, stating that progress had been made in the country.

However, its attempts at economical structural reform have not been as successful, being targeted as “insufficient, and tax evasion issues still need to be addressed. Additional austerity measures imposed to ensure stability in the country are a condition of Greece receiving further instalments of its bailout and the country must adhere to these in order to make a full recovery.