LISBON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno announced here on Monday that Portugal repaid remaining 4.7 billion euros (5.34 billion U.S. dollars) of loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after early repayments.

In a press conference at the Ministry of Finance in Lisbon, Centeno said that the early repayment, which started in 2015, has saved a cumulative 1.16 billion euros in interest for the country over the last two years.

The minister also said that the government maintains the objectives for 2018 and 2019 to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 121.2 percent and 118.5 percent, respectively.

Portugal is expected to pay all the loans to IMF by 2024 after it signed a 78-billion-euro bailout agreement with the European Union, IMF and European Central Bank in May 2011. The debt-ridden country made a clean exit from the bailout program after three years of harsh austerity measures.

The country has been on the track of slow economic recovery since 2014 with considerable drop in unemployment rate. (1 euro = 1.14 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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