Greece received €288.7 billion in rescue loans across three bailout programmes launched from 2010. The financing combined euro-area support, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), alongside debt restructuring and broader fiscal measures.
Contents
- At a glance
- The three bailout programmes
- IMF financing and exceptional access
- Fiscal adjustment and programme targets
- Growth, unemployment and external balance
- Debt, interest and long-term indicators
- Bond holdings and the 2012 PSI
At a glance
The headline figures describe different things, so they should not be added together without care. The €288.7 billion figure is the total rescue-loan amount across all three programmes reported by the ESM. Within that total, the euro area, EFSF and ESM together disbursed €256.6 billion, while IMF lending totalled €32.1 billion. The EFSF and ESM alone accounted for €203.7 billion of disbursements.
The 2012 private-sector involvement (PSI) was a separate debt operation rather than another bailout loan. About 97% of privately held Greek bonds, worth about €197 billion, accepted a 53.5% face-value cut. The ESM reported that the operation reduced Greece’s debt stock by approximately €107 billion.
| Measure | Amount or result | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Rescue loans across three programmes | €288.7 billion | ESM Greece page |
| Euro area, EFSF and ESM disbursements | €256.6 billion | ESM Greece page |
| IMF lending across three programmes | €32.1 billion | ESM Greece page |
| EFSF and ESM combined disbursements | €203.7 billion | ESM Greece page |
| Debt-stock reduction from the 2012 PSI | Approximately €107 billion | ESM Greece page |
The three bailout programmes
The first programme was approved on May 9, 2010. The IMF described its Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) as a three-year arrangement. The first programme provided €73.0 billion in total financing. Its euro-area Greek Loan Facility (GLF) component was €52.9 billion, and its IMF component was €20.1 billion.
The IMF’s contemporary description of the joint 2010 package put its value at €110 billion over three years. In that package, the IMF SBA itself was for €30 billion. By the fourth review, the IMF had disbursed SDR 15.6 billion, or about €17.4 billion, under the SBA. These figures come from different programme descriptions and stages of disbursement, so the arrangement size and the amount disbursed should be kept distinct. Source labels: IMF PR 10/187 and IMF PR 11/273.
The second programme provided €153.8 billion in total financing. The EFSF component was €141.8 billion, while the IMF component was €12.0 billion. The IMF described official-sector support for the second programme as €130 billion in new financing plus the remainder of first-programme support. It also said that the IMF contribution represented about three-elevenths of the total package when PSI and ECB bond repayments were excluded. Source label: ESM Greece page and IMF PR 12/85.
The third programme’s ESM component was €61.9 billion. Taken together, the three programmes explain why headline totals vary depending on whether a source is describing committed financing, programme components or amounts actually disbursed.
IMF financing and exceptional access
Greece’s IMF quota was SDR 823.0 million, according to the 2010 programme documentation. Against that quota, the IMF described exceptional access in the 2010 SBA as about 2,400% of Greece’s new quota. The 2012 EFF arrangement represented exceptional access of 2,159% of Greece’s quota.
The 2012 IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement was SDR 23.8 billion, described as about €28 billion. It allowed an immediate disbursement of SDR 1.4 billion, or about €1.65 billion. The arrangement size, immediate disbursement and cumulative programme lending are separate measurements and refer to different points in the programme process. Source label: IMF PR 12/85.
These percentages are access multiples, not percentages of Greece’s public debt or gross domestic product. They measure IMF financing relative to Greece’s quota in the Fund. That distinction matters when comparing IMF support with the much larger euro-area and EFSF/ESM financing totals.
Fiscal adjustment and programme targets
The IMF said the 2010 fiscal package involved measures amounting to 11% of GDP. Those measures came on top of spending cuts and revenue increases already taken earlier in 2010. Public-sector wages and pension outlays together represented about 75% of total non-interest public spending in Greece, according to the same IMF material. Source label: IMF PR 10/176.
By 2011, Greece’s fiscal deficit had improved by about 6.5 percentage points of GDP compared with 2009. The primary deficit in 2011 was 2.5% of GDP. The 2012 programme aimed to reduce the fiscal deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2014. These are fiscal-balance measures, not direct measures of the total debt stock. Source labels: IMF PR 12/85, IMF PR 10/176 and IMF PR 11/273.
The 2010 IMF projection expected gross debt to rise from 115% of GDP in 2009 to 133% in 2010. The same projection expected the current-account deficit to narrow from 11.2% of GDP in 2009 to 8.4% in 2010. These were programme-era projections, not later outturns. Source label: IMF PR 10/187.
Growth, unemployment and external balance
The 2010 package projected unemployment at 11.8% in 2010, 14.6% in 2011 and 14.8% in 2012. The 2012 EFF projected unemployment at 14.8% in 2012 and 13.4% in 2015. The latter figures were also projections made within the programme framework. Source labels: IMF PR 10/187 and IMF PR 12/85.
The 2012 EFF projected GDP growth of 1.1% in 2012, 2.1% in 2013 and 2.7% in 2015. Its current-account projections were a deficit of 5.6% of GDP in 2012 and 1.9% in 2015. Again, these numbers describe the IMF’s expectations at the time of the EFF documentation.
| Indicator | Earlier programme figure | Later or target figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment | 14.8% in 2012 | 13.4% in 2015 | IMF PR 12/85 |
| GDP growth projection | 1.1% in 2012 | 2.7% in 2015 | IMF PR 12/85 |
| Current-account deficit | 5.6% of GDP in 2012 | 1.9% of GDP in 2015 | IMF PR 12/85 |
The IMF later estimated that Greece’s competitiveness gap, measured by unit labour costs, had been reduced by close to two-thirds since 2010. It also estimated that the current-account deficit had fallen cumulatively by about 10% of GDP since 2010. Source label: IMF 2013 Greece statement.
Debt, interest and long-term indicators
An IMF blog published in 2015 said Greece’s debt was about €300 billion, or 130% of GDP, even before the 2010 programme. It reported cash interest payments of €12 billion in 2009 and said those payments had fallen to €6 billion “last year,” equivalent to 3.2% of GDP in the blog’s reporting context. The measurement period for “last year” is the publication context of that 2015 source, not a timeless current figure. Source label: IMF blog 2015.
The IMF’s 2016 consultation table showed real GDP growth of -9.1% in the first year shown, followed by -7.3% and -3.2% in the next two years. In the same table, unemployment was listed at 27.5%, 26.5%, 24.9%, 23.2% and 21.3% across the years shown. CPI inflation was -0.9%, -1.4%, -1.1%, 0.0% and 1.2% across the later years shown. Source label: IMF PR 17/38.
That 2016 consultation table also showed the general-government fiscal overall balance at -10.3% of GDP in the first year shown, improving to -2.3% of GDP later in the series. External debt was 188.2% of GDP in the first year shown and reached 251.1% of GDP at the peak shown. The consultation projected external debt at 239.2% of GDP in 2017. The table’s sequence contains historical observations and projections; the source’s year labels should be used when interpreting each point. Source label: IMF PR 17/38.
Bond holdings and the 2012 PSI
The ECB reported Greek bond holdings under its Securities Markets Programme (SMP) at a nominal value of €33.9 billion as of December 31, 2012. Their book value was €30.8 billion, and the average remaining maturity was 3.6 years. These are different valuation measures: nominal value is the stated face amount, while book value is the accounting value reported by the ECB. Source label: ECB SMP holdings release.
For context, the Eurosystem’s total SMP holdings across issuers were €218.0 billion at nominal value and €208.7 billion at book value. The Greek amounts therefore formed part of a wider bond-holdings programme, while the PSI concerned privately held Greek bonds.
Under the 2012 PSI, about 97% of privately held Greek bonds, worth about €197 billion, accepted a 53.5% face-value reduction. The ESM reported an approximate €107 billion reduction in Greece’s debt stock. The PSI statistics describe participation, affected bond value and the resulting debt-stock reduction; they are not another measure of rescue-loan disbursements. Source label: ESM Greece page.