Greek market cheer after creditors OK loan, eye debt relief


              Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas waits for the arrival of the Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Greece has won an essential batch of bailout funds from international creditors following agreement among the 19 eurozone finance ministers and can start looking forward to debt relief in the future. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas waits for the arrival of the Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Greece has won an essential batch of bailout funds from international creditors following agreement among the 19 eurozone finance ministers and can start looking forward to debt relief in the future. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's government borrowing costs are at a six-month low and Athens stocks are up after international creditors approved a substantial batch of bailout loans for the debt-crippled country.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was just above 7 percent Wednesday. And the main stock index on the Athens exchange was up 0.5 percent in late midday trading.

In a meeting in Brussels that ended before dawn Wednesday, finance ministers from the 19 eurozone countries approved Greece's latest austerity and reform measures, a process that was first meant to have been concluded last October.

That paved the way for the ministers to approve the payout of loans worth 10.3 billion euros ($11.5 billion), in two installments by October, to Greece. They also further discussed how to lighten Greece's debt load.

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