Greece on Friday announced better-than-expected GDP figures for 2020, with the country's Gross Domestic Product contracting by 8.2 pct to 168.5 billion euros from 183.6 billion in 2019.

The continuation of support measures for households and enterprises and of a fiscal loosening is necessary, and this need is even bigger in countries whose economies are largely dependent on the services sector and sectors such as tourism, Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Monday, addressing a Eurogroup meeting.

Greek Finance ministry has launched procedures for the early repayment of a chunk worth 3.6 billion euros of a loan received by the International Monetary Fund. The specific repayment will cover loans ending in 2021 and 2022, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Monday. It will be the second early repayment of IMF loans within a year, totaling 6.3 billion euros, from a total of around 8.0 billion euros received from the IMF, or around 80 pct.