Greece: Athens calculates €279bn in WWII reparations from Germany

Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas announced that the General Accounting Office had calculated that Germany owes Greece nearly €279 billion ($306 billion) in war reparations, during a parliamentary committee in Athens, Monday. The Greek government believes the money is owed as a result of the damage caused during the Nazi occupation of the country in the Second World War (W.W.II). During W.W.II the Nazis forced Greece to pay an occupation loan of €10.3 billion ($11.3 billion), effectively bankrupting the country. For the first time Greece's General Accounting Office calculated an exact figure that the Greek government says is a fair representation of the financial costs inflicted on the country by the Nazis. It includes the forced loan as well as infrastructural damages, neither of which had been covered in previous settlements according to Athens. Germany insists that the issue of reparations was agreed in 1990 and highlights that 15 million Deutschmarks (€7.6million/$8.3million) in compensation was given to Greece in 1960. The issue has been raised by Tsipras' government as Greece is struggling to meet the repayments for the bailout plan imposed by the German government and other international lenders.