The European Commission has said that Greece has met the conditions to receive the second tranche of a 110bn-euro ($145bn; \u00a391bn) rescue loan.<\/p>\n
Greece has already received 20bn euros of the loan, which was agreed by the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n
The Greek government has made big cuts to public spending to try to reduce the country’s deficit, but economic growth has also been hit by the measures.<\/p>\n
The Greek economy shrank by 1.5% in the second quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the IMF said Greece had made a “strong start” to tackling its deficit, and said it was “confident” Greece would receive the next instalment of the loan.<\/p>\n
Finance ministers from the eurozone countries will now gather in Brussels on 7 September to sign off the payment of 9bn euros, which is due on 13 September.<\/p>\n
“Greece has managed impressive budgetary consolidation during the first half of 2010 and has achieved swift progress with major structural reforms,” said European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.<\/p>\n
The Commission said that Greece’s deficit had declined by some 46%, “faster than planned”, with total state cash spending reduced by 16.9% compared with the first half of 2009.<\/p>\n
But Mr Rehn added that “challenges and risks remain”.<\/p>\n
According to the latest figures from the Greek Finance Ministry, its deficit stood at 12.1bn euros at the end of July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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