FX.co ★ ESM disburses final loan tranche of €15 billion to Greece

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) disbursed €15 billion to Greece under the third macro-financial assistance program. This was the fifth and final tranche, noted in the ESM report.

Most of the funds, €9.5 billion, will be allocated for building up the country’s liquidity buffer, and the remaining amount will be used for debt service. After the disbursement, the Greece’s liquidity buffer will reach €24 billion. These funds should be enough for 22 months to cover the country’s needs after the end of the third financial assistance program. Officially, it ends on August 20, 2018. Previously, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici warned that Greece should not rely on the fourth program of macroeconomic assistance.

From 2012 to 2018, Athens received €204 billion from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). These are the funds allocated under the second and third programs, that is, excluding €100 billion which the country received from May 2010 to December 2011. Then the money was transferred by the IMF, the European Commission and the ECB, as the EFSF had not been established yet.