BRUSSELS, June 26 (Reuters) - The European Commission will pay out the second tranche of its balance-of-payments aid for Latvia within weeks, the European Union executive said on Friday.
The Economic and Financial Committee of junior EU finance ministers and central bankers backed the disbursement of the 1.2 billion euro ($1.7 billion) tranche from the Commission and the International Monetary Fund after budget cuts by the Baltic state.
"The Commission ... will now proceed with the finalisation of the revised memorandum of understanding for signature by the Latvian government and (Monetary Affairs) Commissioner (Joaquin) Almunia, as well as the technical preparation of the second loan installment which will be disbursed in the next weeks," Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres said. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)