ESM board approves debt relief package

The eurozone's bailout fund has approved the implementation of a major debt relief plan for Greece that it says would provide the crisis-scarred country significant savings over several decades.

The measures include a complex mix of interest rate improvements and repayment deferrals that were initially agreed upon in June.

Meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, the board of the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, activated the program after determining that Greece had met a list of conditions.

Klaus Regling, who heads the agency and its descendant fund, the European Stability Mechanism, said some of the relief measures activated on Thursday remained "conditional on the continued implementation of key reforms."

"We estimate that the total package of medium-term measures agreed by ministers last June should lead to a cumulative...