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Greece Repays $495 Million to IMF


Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis attends the annual conference of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris, April 9, 2015.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis attends the annual conference of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris, April 9, 2015.

Greece has made a debt repayment of $495 million to the International Monetary Fund, easing days of uncertainty and bringing relief to investors.

It was a crucial payment that will help Greece move closer to securing a final international bailout package and stay in the eurozone.

Finance ministers of eurozone countries agreed earlier this year to extend Greece's bailout on the condition that the country would present a sound plan of economic reforms.

Athens submitted a number of measures last week to combat tax evasion and fraud. Unemployment in Greece is double that of the rest of the Eurozone countries.

Athens raised $1.24 billion in six-month treasury bills on Wednesday. It announced the sale of another $670 million in three-month bills on Thursday.

Later this month Greece has to make interest payments of about half-a-billion dollars and roll over $2.57 billion in six-and three-month treasury bills.

Since 2010, the country has received two loan packages from the European Union and the IMF, a total of more than $270 billion, in exchange for austerity measures and sweeping economic reforms.

Meanwhile, on the second day of his visit to Russia, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Earlier, Tsipras held meetings at the Russian parliament and Moscow University of International Relations

Tsipras said Greece could become a mediator to ease strained relations between Moscow and the West over the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and situation in eastern Ukraine.

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