Greece concludes early repayment of IMF loans

Greece concluded the early repayment of expensive loans from the International Monetary Fund, the country's finance ministry said on Monday.

The move allows Athens to reduce its debt-servicing costs, because IMF loans carry higher interest than Greece would now pay in the market.

"The part of the loans that was repayed is 2.7 billion euros," the ministry said in a press release.

In October, the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, agreed to allow Greece to pay back earlier some of its debt to the IMF.

The decision followed a Greek government request to the ESM in September to repay some of its loans to the IMF, worth about 9 billion euros.

Greece, cut off from the markets during the sovereign debt crisis of 2010-2015, borrowed heavily from the IMF and euro zone governments.