Greece made a 3.2 billion euro ($3.56 billion) payment to the European Central Bank on a maturing government bond on Thursday, tapping cash from its first disbursement of bailout money, a senior government official said.
"The payment was made, the funds are on their way," the official told Reuters, declining to be named.
Greece received the first tranche of funds from its new bailout loan on Thursday after the European Stability Mechanism approved a rescue of up to 86 billion euros on Wednesday.
The first tranche amounts to 13 billion euros, of which about 12 billion euros will be used to pay down debt, including an earlier bridge loan and the maturing Greek government bond held by the ECB.
The initial tranche was paid in cash. Another 10 billion euros for the recapitalisation of banks was sent to a segregated account in the form of ESM notes.
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