ESM disburses € 7.7bn to Greece

€ 6.9bn to disappear by July 20

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) disbursed the € 7.7 billion tranche to Greece, Monday. The amount was deposited in the Bank of Greece’s (BoG) special treasury account. € 6.9 billion will be used to service the country’s debt, with the remaining 800 million going to overdue public debts to the private sector. Meanwhile, the EuroGroup, which is scheduled to meet on Monday afternoon, will not have Greece on its agenda of talks after a long time. The Greek Alternate Minister of Finance George Chouliarakis will be stepping in for Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos at the meeting in Brussels, as the later is suffering from a case of ear inflammation (OM) and his doctor advised against air travel. Following the disbursement of the installment, the Greek government will possibly attempt to return to the markets in July, while the Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, Euclid Tsakalotos and the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yiannis Stournaras will send a signed Letter of Intent to the IMF in order to receive an answer regarding its Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP). The letter, signed by the Greek PM arrived in Washington on Friday and the Fund’s board of directors will meet on July 27 focusing on the Greek matter. According to the EC’s Compliance Report, the Greek government received a € 3.5 billion last year to pay overdue government debts, with a mere € 74 million going to pensioners a year later. Among other arrears, the state has tom pay € 2.1 billion to private investors by July 17, € 290 million to the IMF on the 18th and repay bonds worth € 3.9 billion to the European Central Bank (ECB) by July 20.