Greece today confirmed receipt of a loan tranche of €14.5 billion from the European Union under a giant rescue package to enable it to meet an imminent debt deadline.
'The sum of €14.5 billion has been released by the European Commission, via the European Central Bank, to a Greek state account at the Bank of Greece,' the finance ministry said in a statement.
'These funds cover Greece's immediate and short-term loan requirements and obligations,' the ministry said, adding that ten euro zone members had contributed with bilateral loans.
The list was headed by German state bank KfW which provided some €4.4 billion while France gave more than €3.3 billion, with other contributions from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta. The full lineup of euro zone countries includes Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia.
Greece needed the money, which is part of a €110 billion bail-out loan recently agreed with the EU and the International Monetary Fund, to repay a 10-year government bond worth €9 billion that matures tomorrow.
The Greek economy is caught in a deepening recession and the government called for the EU-IMF rescue last month after facing prohibitive borrowing costs on the open market.
Greece is burdened with a debt mountain of nearly €300 billion nd last year had a national budget shortfall of over €30 billion.
Minister resigns over husband's unpaid tax bill
The resignation of a minister over her star husband's unpaid tax bill of more than €5m stunned the Greek government today as it received the EU money today.
The government, which has ordered huge austerity cuts to help battle its debt crisis, suffered a humiliating blow with the resignation of Secretary of state for tourism Angela Gerekou last night.
The government said the former actress and model stood down 'due to the sensitivity' of the allegations surrounding her husband.
Gerekou resigned within hours of a newspaper article that revealed her husband's unpaid taxes. The finance ministry confirmed that Tolis Voskopoulos, a singing star of the 1970s and 1980s, owed €5.5m in unpaid taxes and late payment fines.
Prime Minister George Papandreou's government has ordered a major campaign against tax cheats as part of the new austerity drive.
Ireland won't lose out in Greek plan - Lenihan
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has confirmed that Ireland will contribute €1.3 billion to the bail-out of Greece agreed by the EU and International monetary Fund.
He was speaking in the Dáil in a debate on the legislation to give effect to Ireland's participation in the scheme. Provision has been made in the legislation, however, for an upper limit of €1.5 billion.
Minister Lenihan said the package was in the form of loans which will be repaid as the economic position in Greece improved. He said Ireland would be not be financially disadvantaged by the arrangements, and that there were provisions for any extra costs to be recouped.
'Whilst our debt level will rise as a result of this additional borrowing, the financial assistance we provide will not impact upon our general government deficit, as it is classified as a financial transaction,' he said.
