Greece to get next bailout loans by end of month [Update]

Greece will start receiving its next 8.3 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in bailout loans at the end of the month, eurozone finance ministers said Tuesday, citing progress after "many painful years" of reforms.

The statement came after the finance ministers from the 18 countries that use the euro met in Athens under tight security, with protests banned in a large part of the city center. Unions and political youth groups plan demonstrations just outside the exclusion zone in the evening.

Greece, which has suffered the deepest and most prolonged financial crisis in the eurozone, has been dependent on rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund since May 2010. In return it has pledged a series of reforms, but has often come under criticism for being slow in implementing them and missing fiscal targets.

Tuesday’s approval of the next installment of bailout loans comes after the completion of a tortuous, months-long debt inspection by the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission.

"This has been an arduous process but we have now a positive outcome," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the meetings of the eurozones finance ministers known as the Eurogroup.

The funds are to be disbursed in three parts, with the first 6.3 billion euros to be paid at the end of April, in time for Greece to meet a bond redemption in May, Dijsselbloem said.

Payouts of 1 billion euros each would be made in June and July, linked to the implementation of targets Greece has agreed to. The parliaments of some of the 18 eurozone countries must ratify the payments before they are actually made, but the Eurogroup’s decision is key to the process.

The amount does not include...