Europe

Europe: Eurozone finance ministers and the IMF have reached an agreement on Greek debt, which paves the way for the release of much-needed loans. After nearly 10 hours of talks, it was agreed that the country's public debt should fall to 124% of GDP in 2020 through a package of extra debt cutting measures. "It's going very slow, but we have financing and a Debt Sustainability Analysis. We've filled the financing gap until the end of programme in 2014," one official said, adding that talks on the details of the debt cutting measures with the IMF were still ongoing. The deal is a breakthrough towards releasing the next tranche of loans to Greece after its US$31.2b package was suspended in the summer over concerns it was not meeting the conditions of its bailout programme. The IMF has said Greece's debt as a proportion of GDP must be cut to around 120% by 2020, from a forecast 190% next year, for it to be manageable in the long term. It was not immediately clear how the debt would be reduced from its currently forecast level of 144% in 2020 to the target, but it is expected to involve a series of measures including the lowering of interest rate on loans to Greece.