Euro zone finance ministers grant Greece short-term debt relief

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Monday to grant Greece short-term debt relief measures that would reduce the amount of the country's public debt by 20 percentage points of GDP by 2060, euro zone officials said on Monday.

Speaking after a meeting of euro zone finance ministers, the head of the euro zone's ESM bailout fund Klaus Regling told a news conference the implementation of the measures would take a while, but the fund would start the process in the coming weeks.

The measures, detailed in an ESM paper prepared for the ministers, would help smooth out debt repayment humps in the 2030s and 2040s, Regling said. Switching from floating to fixed interest on loans would raise the costs for Greece in the short term, although lower them in the longer-run.

(Reporting By Alastair Macdonald and Francesco Guarascio, writing by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)