Greece to pay off its billion dollar debt to IMF

Greece is reportedly planning to repay more than 7 billions euros remaining debt to the International Monetary Fund and eurozone partners in the next two months.

According to Reuters, officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Greek Treasury would repay 1.8 billion euros ($2.03 billion) in IMF loans ahead of schedule, the last batch of a total 28 billion euros the lender provided in two bailouts between 2010 and 2014.

In addition, it would repay some 5.3 billion euros in loans from Greece's eurozone partners expiring in 2022 and 2023 by the end of the first quarter.

"We plan to complete the repayment in the next two months," one official told Reuters.

"This will help us reduce our debt to GDP ratio. It will also send a signal to the markets that the Greek economy is strong and healthy," a second official added.

Greece repaid about 6 billion euros to the IMF ahead of schedule in 2019 and 2021 and has 1.8 billion euros in outstanding loans due by 2024.

It started paying off the first bailout loans to its euro zone partners last year and wants to speed up the pace.

Disagreements and confrontations between the IMF delegation in Athens and successive Greek governments over the harsh austerity conditions imposed by the fund were frequent during the crisis years when Greece was in deep recession with unemployment reaching as high as 27%.

[Reuters]