MADRID: Spain plans to pay back €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) in bailout loans it received in 2012 from the European Union to bolster its ailing banks, the economy ministry said on Wednesday.
Madrid will transfer the funds to the EU rescue fund in July — ahead of schedule — an economy ministry spokeswoman said. Spain has already reimbursed two tranches of the €41.4 billion in bailout funds it received for its banking sector, despite having a decade to do so.
Madrid made the first repayment of €1.3 billion in July 2014, followed by a second installation of €1.5 billion in March 2015. Spanish banks were battered when the country’s decade-long housing bubble burst in 2008, spurring the state to nationalize some lenders and seek EU aid.
Spain’s eurozone partners agreed in June 2012 to provide up to €100 billion to rescue its crippled banking system. The Spanish economy, the eurozone’s fourth-largest, returned to growth in 2014 with expansion of 1.4 percent after five years of recession. The government expects the economy will expand by around three percent this year, faster than any other large eurozone country.
