Greece said it wanted to pay back its outstanding $35.1 billion loans a decade early.
Athens took a €52.9 billion ($61.8 billion) bailout from fellow eurozone countries in 2010 after accruing unsustainable debts, imperiling the currency itself. It was ordered to take tough measures to reduce its deficits, and the country is now a rare European economic success story: It hopes to pay off the remaining debt by 2031 instead of 2041.
Europe’s traditionally weaker economies have outperformed the core countries in recent years, and now nations like Spain, Italy, and Portugal as well as Greece can borrow at the same costs as France and Germany, a sign both of their strength and the European giants’ weakness.
