Greece to receive €1bn from Eurozone as part of post-bailout deal

Eurozone finance ministers will give a grant of nearly €1bn (£858m) to Greece as part of long-running financial support for the southern state, officials have said.

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Greece will receive the money after it respected its current commitments to reform, including reducing the burden of bad loans on banks’ balance sheets, ministers from the European Commission (EC) agreed today.

The cash will bring down the cost of Greek borrowing, which has been much higher since the Eurozone crisis that peaked between 2010 and 2012 when the country was shut out of markets.

The last bailout programme for Greece ended in August, and had begun three years earlier. In total, Greece received €61.9bn of financial assistance from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the bulk of the money the stability system provided to struggling Eurozone countries.

Greek Parliament last week agreed on reforms to help banks recover bad debt in a bid to reduce bad loans on Greek banks' balance sheets.

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The Eurozone has pledged to disburse €4.8bn to Greece until 2022 if Athens continues making the reforms it demands, which have included privatisations, bank recapitalisation, reforms to public administration, and ensuring financial stability.