Troika close to agreement to ease pain of €40bn bailout

The troika is in the final stages of organising a series of measures designed to further ease the pain of the country’s massive borrowings and help re-entry to the markets.

They are concentrating on extending the maturities of the more than €40bn lent by the EU/IMF to at least 30 years together with a possible reduction in the interest rate.

European economics commissioner Olli Rehn confirmed that work was continuing on these issues with the ECB and the IMF for both Ireland and Portugal.