国际英语新闻：Athens to receive first EU loans by Tuesday: Greek media

ATHENS, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Greece is to receive by Tuesday the first sum of loans granted by the European Union to assist the country in facing a debt crisis that has alarmed European partners, Greek media reported on Monday.

Greece will receive in the following hours 14.5 billion euros (approximately 18.4 billion U.S. dollars) from other eurozone member states in the framework of the EU-IMF financial aid package for Athens.

At least 9 billion euros will be spent immediately on Wednesday for the payment of old debts.

The first tranche of loans from the IMF were released last week for Greece amounting to 5.5 billion euros.

Athens will receive a total of 40 billion euros by the end of this year, according to the timetable of the three-year program to exit the crisis with international aid.

Approximately 10 billion euros will be invested this June on the creation of the Financial Stability Fund that will support the Greek banks.

According to the agreement reached in April, Greece will receive the next sums of aid in August.

Meanwhile, the EU partners and the IMF have increased pressure on the Greek government to fully implement the austerity program and the reforms, which are necessary to cut public expenditure and put the economy back on the right path of recovery.

Greece has secured a total of 110 billion euros from the EU-IMF safety net over the next three years.