Euro Area Backs Greek Payment, Shifts Focus to New Bailout

The euro area approved its share of a 12 billion-euro ($17.4 billion) aid payment for Greece and pledged to complete work in the coming weeks on a second rescue package for the cash-strapped nation to prevent a default and contagion.




Finance ministers agreed to disburse 8.7 billion euros of loans under last year’s 110 billion-euro bailout, rewarding Greek Premier George Papandreou for pushing an extra austerity plan through parliament. The International Monetary Fund is due to provide the rest of the July aid installment, the fifth under the 2010 package.


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