Euro zone agrees to release 12bn payment to Greece

BRUSSELS: Euro zone finance ministers approved the release of the next tranche of emergency loans to Greece on Saturday, saying 12 billion euros would be paid by July 15 as long as the IMF gives its approval.

The payment will help Athens avoid default. The IMF board is expected to meet to sign off on the payment on July 8.

"Ministers approve the disbursement of the fifth tranche of the current Greek loan facility by July 15 following approval by the IMF board," Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers, said in a statement after a conference call among the 17 ministers.

The statement added that the "precise modalities and scale" of private sector involvement in a second aid package for Greece would be worked out in the coming weeks, "so as to ensure that, inter alia, required programme financing is in place".

It said the new package, expected to be around 110 billion euros like the first, would revolve around further "ambitious and concrete structural reform and privatisation plans" by Athens, which is expected to raise around 30 billion euros from the sale of state assets as part of the package.

Copyright Reuters, 2011