The amount is roughly half that handed to Portugal by the institution and about a fifth of the total given to the country by the bailout Troika, which in addition to the IMF, also consists of the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
The early repayment comes after Portugal managed to raise funding on markets with maturity rates of 2.5 percent, whereas the IMF is charging Portugal 3.7 percent interest for the money it lent.
Initial estimates suggest Portugal could save in the region of 140 million euros by shifting their debt away from the IMF towards third party investors.
Portugal paid more than one billion euros in interest and commissions to international lenders under the country’s bailout scheme in the first six months of 2014, most recent figures show.
The country, i.e. taxpayers, had to fork out 1.05 billion euros in interest and 17.8 million euros in commissions, roughly the same as in 2013 when they had to pay the troika 963.6 million euros in interest and 31.4 million euros in commissions.