"Today’s decision to disburse €7.5 billion to Greece is a recognition of the Greek government’s commitment to carry out essential reforms. It has passed legislation that will: reform the pension and income tax systems; establish a new privatisation and investment fund; enable the sale of non-performing loans; and introduce an automatic fiscal adjustment mechanism to be triggered in case fiscal targets are not met," Regling was quoted as saying on the ESM website.
The second tranche amounts to 10.3 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in total. This tranche is part of the bailout package worth 86 billion euros ($96 billion) set in the 2015 agreement between Athens and Greece's international creditors.
Greece was particularly hard hit by the 2008-2009 economic crisis, and was offered massive bailout programs from its international lenders. The economic recession, exacerbated by the mismanagement of previous Greek governments, has resulted in Athens being saddled with a multibillion-dollar debt.
