€550m lifeline

[Maik]

Greece awarded financial breathing space with €550m lifeline
Athens will be allowed to take back more than half a billion euros in rescue funds as it struggles to meet debt repayments

 Greece's cash-strapped government will be able to tap more than half a billion euros in bank rescue funds, easing the pressure on the country as it scrambles to meet loan repayments due later this month.

Following the revision of the eurozone's financial backstops, Athens will be eligible to receive more than €550m (£390.7m) from the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) - a bank rescue vehicle used to recapitalise the country's stricken lenders in 2012.

Klaus Regling, head of Europe's financial rescue fund, said the money was originally paid in by Greek banks before the country's bail-out in 2010, and creditors "had no legal claims" on it.

The cash injection could now help alleviate the squeeze on Greece's Leftist government, which faces loan redemptions of €1.2bn to the International Monetary Fund over the next 20 days.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11461476/Greece-awarded-financial-breathing-space-with-550m-lifeline.html