Eurogroup

The Eurogroup acknowledged on Thursday the positive course of the Greek economy before the pandemic and the government's rapid reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, and gave the nod for measures benefiting Athens to the tune of 748 million euros.

Eurozone finance ministers on Thursday approved the disbursement of 748 million euros to Greece from profits made by European central banks that purchased Greek sovereign bonds.

Eurozone finance ministers will start on Thursday a month-long process of choosing their next chairman to replace Portugal's Mario Centeno who will step down in July, with ministers from Spain, Luxembourg and Ireland among possible candidates.

The Eurogroup council of eurozone finance ministers will on Thursday consider suspending Greece's obligation to achieve a primary budget surplus of 3.5% of gross domestic product.

European officials praised on Friday Greece's response to the health crisis and stressed that the country will be in the same position as its eurozone peers in the terms of the support it receives from the European Union.

The creditors' decision for the change in the use of proceeds from Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs), switching from servicing the debt to investments, as the government has requested, will be made later in the year.

The government is seeking to ride the new momentum created by the health crisis in Europe, at the expense of the once unique recipe of austerity, while the first-quarter fiscal data compiled by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) indicated an annual deterioration of 1.3 billion euros.

During Friday's Eurogroup teleconference, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras is determined to press for swift decisions and efficient procedures so that support programs are immediately implemented in the eurozone.

Following Friday's agreement by eurozone finance ministers, Greece stands to receive low-interest loans from the emergency credit line of the European Stability Mechanism without any of the heavy conditions it had to meet in the 2010s.

Eurozone finance ministers hope to agree on Friday on the final details of credit lines from the ESM bailout fund for governments in need of cheap cash to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, so that the money can be available from June.