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Eurogroup chief: Economic situation in euro zone has improved a lot

The new President of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno and Pierre Moscovici, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs and Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the EU's permanent bailout fund
The new President of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno and Pierre Moscovici, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs and Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the EU's permanent bailout fund
BRUSSELS, Jan 22 (KUNA) -- The new President of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno, said Monday that the situation of the euro area economy has improved significantly with solid growth and job creation in virtually all Euro area countries.
"It is a good time to make our economies more resilient. With this in mind, we discussed policy priorities in the Euro area in 2018. We agreed on five recommendations for the Euro area focusing on growth and jobs, fiscal issues, labour market functioning, the financial sector and the Euro area architecture," he told a press conference after the meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers tonight.
The Eurogroup also reached a political agreement on the third review of Greece's economic adjustment programme, as the Greek authorities have implemented nearly all required reforms under this review, he noted.
Pierre Moscovici, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, told the joint press conference that "it is a great effort from the Greek authorities as was said by all, recognized by all in the room even those who short while ago were sceptical about this." Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the EU's permanent bailout fund, called European Stability Mechanism, said that they are now preparing the disbursement of the fourth tranche to Greece, the total amount will be 6.7 billion euros (USD 8.2 billion).
Out of this amount 3.3 billion euros (USD four billion) are earmarked for debt repayment, 1.9 billion euros (USD 2.3 billion) for the cash buffer and 1.5 billion euros (USD 1.8 billion) for risk clearance.
"As in the past, the total amount will be split into two parts, a first disbursement of 5.7 billion euros (USD 6.9 billion) could take place once all the prior actions are completed, most likely in the second half of February," he added. (end) nk.bs