Satisfied with passage of a multi-faceted bill that will lead to the removal of 15,000 public workers over the next two years, the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance officials on April 29 approved the release of a 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) installment that had been delayed since March.
The coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives, the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left voted in lockstep unanimity in a 168-123 vote to pass the measures. Greece is expecting to receive another 6 billion euros ($7.85 billion) in the next few weeks.
A meeting of Eurozone finance ministers on May 13 is expected to give the green light for another 4.2 billion euros ($5.5 billion) as part of that amount. This will happen without another review from inspectors from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) putting up $325 billion in two bailouts.
The IMF’s executive board is due to meet a few days later give the go-ahead for Athens to receive another 1.8 billion euros ($2.35 billion) in loans from the Washington-based organization.
On May 20, Greece has to pay out 5.6 billion euros ($7.33 billion) to cover maturing bonds held by the ECB and national banks in the Eurozone. If the IMF has not disbursed the loan by then, Greece may have to resort to an emergency issue if T-bills to cover a financing gap.
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