BRUSSELS — Britain was given the leeway on Friday to defer a payment of 2.1 billion euros, or about $2.6 billion, to the European Union, whose demand had given ammunition to a populist party pressing the country to leave the bloc.

Officials said Britain would receive a rebate of about €1 billion on the payment, an amount that was likely to have been refunded at a later date. As a result, Britain will be able to use that cash to reduce the current bill.

“We have halved the bill, we have delayed the bill,” George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer, said following a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels.

But other ministers said Britain would end up paying the entire amount, because it would have already used up €1 billion of its rebate entitlements.