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The release of funds, which needs to be endorsed by euro zone
finance ministers at a meeting on Friday, would boost Greece's
already large cash buffers and could allow the country to borrow
at more favorable rates.
Greece exited its last bailout in August after eight years of
financial support from euro zone creditors and the International
Monetary Fund. It has already successfully tapped financial
markets again.
The funds, the first installment of a post-bailout program,
should have been released earlier, but the payment was delayed
because creditors said Athens had not executed required reforms
by the end of last year.
The Commission's positive assessment on Wednesday followed the
Greek Parliament's approval last week of a reform to facilitate
banks' recovery of debt that goes bad, a move that is expected
to reduce the large burden of non-performing loans on Greek
lenders' balance sheets
The nearly 1-billion-euro grants that could be approved this
week would be the first disbursement from a package of 4.8
billion euros that euro zone creditors have pledged to Greece
until 2022 as part of the post-bailout program, which requires
Athens to continue reforms.
The money partly comes from profits made by euro zone central
banks on their holdings of Greek bonds that will gradually
mature over the coming years.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Jan Strupczewski; Editing
by Susan Fenton)
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