Greece creditors agree to unlock further aid

Greece’s creditors have agreed a deal to unlock a further €10.3bn in bailout funds to ease the country’s debt burden.

After an 11-hour meeting in Brussels, Eurozone ministers and the International Monetary Fund came to a deal to release the fresh loans to Greece after agreeing the nation had met its obligations through economic reforms.

Greece needed the debt relief to meet its July deadline on debt repayments to its creditors. Greece owes its lenders more than €300bn, which equates to about 180% of its annual gross domestic product.

The debt relief will be phased in from 2018, after Germany's general election late next year.

The IMF also signalled that it could join the bailout by the end of 2016 following a debt-sustainability analysis.

IMF European Director Poul M Thomsen said: "We welcome that it is recognised that Greece needs debt relief to make that debt sustainable and it can't do it on its own."

Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chaired the meeting, stressed there was no guarantee that the IMF will join the Greek programme as they have their own rules and procedures to follow.