{"id":19046,"date":"2019-04-02T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T07:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/?p=19046"},"modified":"2019-04-02T10:33:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T07:33:04","slug":"greece-is-said-to-mull-early-imf-repayment-as-aid-tranche-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/archives\/19046","title":{"rendered":"Greece Is Said to Mull Early IMF Repayment as Aid Tranche Nears"},"content":{"rendered":"
(Bloomberg) —<\/span><\/section>\n
Greece\u2019s plans to repay part of its loans from the International Monetary Fund<\/a> ahead of schedule may soon come to fruition, paving the way for the debt-stricken nation to claim it has taken another step toward economic normalcy.<\/p>\n

Early repayment of expensive IMF loans has been a longstanding ambition of the Greek government, as it seeks to bring down its debt refinancing costs. Talk of the plan comes as the country moved closer to fulfilling a first set of post-bailout commitments, which will likely allow for the disbursement of some 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) in aid at a meeting of euro-area finance ministers on Friday.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras\u2019s<\/a> government hasn\u2019t so far submitted any formal request to the IMF to make an early repayment, but the government is exploring<\/a> such a step, according to two Greek officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the plans are not yet final.<\/p>\n

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Greece and its creditors struck a landmark deal last summer to ease the repayment terms for part of the nation\u2019s mountain of debt, which nonetheless still stands at around 180 percent of its gross domestic product. Repaying the IMF early would reduce Greece\u2019s debt obligations for the coming years since part of these loans are more expensive than both the bailout funds it has received from the euro zone and even the country\u2019s cost<\/a> of new borrowing from the markets.<\/p>\n

The move could also help boost Tsipras\u2019 political capital ahead of a general election this year, as it will add to signs that the economy is stronger and that the country can start weaning itself off its creditors. This will also allow the premier to claim he has reduced the IMF\u2019s exposure to Greece and thus reduced the need for its oversight.<\/p>\n

Waiver Needed<\/h3>\n

The repayment will first require a green light from the euro area. That\u2019s because, as creditors to Greece, other euro-area countries must waive their right to be paid back early by a proportional amount. This waiver has been granted in the past to former bailout countries such as Ireland and Portugal.<\/p>\n

EU officials say Greece hasn\u2019t so far made any official request to repay the IMF early. But even if it does, it is not a given that the euro zone will be on board.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because some countries could be skeptical about whether the early repayment would be financially beneficial for Greece rather than just replacing official debt with still-pricey borrowing from the markets. As well as needing to show that the savings in debt servicing costs from this swap would be significant, Athens may also need to prove to its creditors that its plans for economic overhauls remain ambitious.<\/p>\n

Countries such as Germany, which insisted on the IMF\u2019s participation in the Greek rescue program, may hesitate to approve a step that will minimize the fund\u2019s involvement, officials say. Such nations have in the past sought the IMF\u2019s participation as a seal of credibility for the Greek bailout.<\/p>\n

Read More: Germany Rejects Greek Plan to Repay IMF Early: Handelsblatt<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the government\u2019s latest delays in fulfilling the conditions attached to its post-bailout review, including a prolonged spat over a household insolvency framework may spook creditors, who worry about its impact on the Greece\u2019s troubled banks and fear it may be a harbinger of profligate behavior ahead of this year\u2019s national elections.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Bloomberg) — Greece\u2019s plans to repay part of its loans from the International Monetary Fund ahead of schedule may soon come to fruition, paving the way for the debt-stricken nation to claim it has taken another step toward economic normalcy. Early repayment of expensive IMF loans has been a longstanding ambition of the Greek government,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19047,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19046\/revisions\/19047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}