PM hails ‘end of an era’ after Greece pays off IMF loans

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday hailed Greece’s early repayment of the last installment of its bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the “end of an era.”

His post on Twitter came after Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on Monday announced that Greece “concluded the repayment of its debts to the IMF.”

It is a move that “marks the end of bleak chapter that opened in March 2010,” Mitsotakis tweeted, referring to the date of the Greek debt restructuring and the start of a string of bailout loans from the eurozone and the IMF, totaling 280 billion euros.

Following previous early repayments to the IMF, Greece owed 1.9 billion euros in loans due by 2024, the last batch of a total of 28 billion euros the Fund provided between 2010 and 2014, according to Reuters.

Staikouras added that by paying off the last tranche early, Greece is saving 230 million euros.