Greece granted lifeline as IMF joins bailout

Eurozone governments threw Greece another 11th-hour credit lifeline on on June 15 worth $9.5 billion and sketched new detail on possible debt relief as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) finally offered to help out after two years of hesitation.

The 8.5 billion euros of loans from the eurozone's 18 other states, including Berlin which is wary of easing terms for Greece ahead of a German election in September, lets Athens avoid defaulting on bailout repayments next month and recognizes unpopular cuts and reforms the left-wing government has made.

"There is now light at the end of the tunnel," Greece's Euclid Tsakalotos told reporters after meeting fellow euro zone finance ministers and IMF chief Christine Lagarde in Luxembourg.

The accords gave enough clarity to investors on how Greece can manage its crushing debt burden that it should be able to borrow on the market again "in due course" after effectively relying on bailout support from other sovereigns since 2010.

A proposal by the French government under new President Emmanuel Macron to help bridge differences on debt relief will underpin further euro zone discussions, officials said. Macron wants to work with Germany to strengthen the 18-year-old common currency, which was nearly wrecked by the sovereign debt crisis.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose insistence on austerity reforms to public finances in Athens have long made him a hate figure for many Greeks, said lawmakers in Berlin would review the deal on June 16 to see if it deviated from a 2015 bailout enough to need new German parliamentary approval.

Eurozone bailout fund chief Klaus Regling said his European Stability Mechanism would disburse 7.7 billion euros in early July to cover 6...