Athens: Greece has successfully completed a three-year eurozone bailout programme designed to help it cope with the fallout from its debt crisis.
For the first time in eight years, Greece is now free to borrow money on the financial markets, the BBC reported on Monday.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) provided the country with $70.8 billion over the three years. The ESM is a fund set up by the countries that use the euro currency to deal with a financial crisis.
This supported the Greek government’s efforts to reform the nation’s troubled economy and recapitalise its banks.
Together with assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the loans given to Greece since 2010 amounted to more than 260 billion euros — the biggest bailout in global financial history, the BBC said.
As a condition of the loans, the Greek government was forced to introduce a series of unpopular austerity measures.
The Greek economy has grew slowly and is still 25 per cent smaller than when the crisis began.
The ESM had made available another $27 billion to Greece, but said the country had not needed to call on it.
IANS