ATHENS, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Greece earlier on Monday paid off debt worth 5.3 billion euros ($6.22 billion) ahead of schedule, a government source told Reuters.
The debt was part of Greece’s first 2010 bailout from its euro zone peers and the payment was made to each individual country through the European Commission, the government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Greek economy is gradually recovering from a 2009-2018 crisis that saw it nearly drop out of the euro zone and that triggered years of social unrest as ordinary Greeks fought against austerity-induced cuts in wages and pensions.
Greece had planned to pay off loans granted under the first of three debt-crisis bailouts by 2031, ten years earlier than scheduled.
($1 = 0.8523 euros)
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Sharon Singleton)