Greece to get eurozone money in April if all reforms done, says Centeno

Eurozone finance ministers could grant Greece close to one billion euros in April if Athens completes by then the reforms agreed with creditors, top eurozone officials said on Monday.

“If all reform commitments are met, the Eurogroup will in April consider the implementation of further debt relief measures,” the head of eurozone finance ministers Mario Centeno told a news conference. “There are still a couple of points where details need to be fleshed out. The main outstanding issue is a potential new scheme for the protection of primary residences,” he said.

Greece has so far completed 13 out of the 16 promised reforms, the European Commission said. Under the debt relief deal struck with eurozone creditors in June 2018, Greece is to receive every six months profits that eurozone central banks have made on their Greek bond portfolios and from waiving the step up margin on some eurozone loans.

But the cash can only be transferred to Greece if the country delivers on all promised reforms and does not backtrack on any of the earlier changes. The head of the eurozone bailout fund ESM, Klaus Regling, told the news conference that in total the profits from Greek bond portfolios and the waiving of the step up margin amounted to 974 million euros ($1.1 billion).

“This is not a new ESM loan,” Regling said. “These are commitments made by the Eurogroup in the context of the medium term debt measures last June and these are grants for Greece. This will continue every six months … until 2022,” he said. [Reuters]