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Greece will avoid default after bailout deal but faces more austerity
Source: The Guardian
Greece will avoid default after bailout deal – but faces more austerity
Unions vow strike action after leftist-led government agrees
to further slash pensions and cut tax breaks
Helena Smith in Athens
Tuesday 2 May 2017 19.24 BST
The long road to Greece emerging from its worst financial crisis in modern times reached another milestone on Tuesday as the country concluded a crucial compliance review that will allow it to avert default in July.
At the cost of yet more painful austerity – in the form of extra pension cuts and tax increases – international creditors agreed to disburse €7.5bn (£6.3bn) in emergency loans to enable Athens to honour maturing debt repayments. More importantly, lenders accepted to set talks in motion on making Greece’s debt mountain more manageable – vital if the country is to gain access to the capital markets from which it has been almost completely exiled since 2009.
The breakthrough, after marathon 12-hour talks, became apparent only when the Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, announced in the small hours that “white smoke” had been achieved. “There is white smoke … The negotiation is finished with agreement on all the issues,” he said. “We now have a decision that the Greek government will be called to enforce with laws and decisions.”
The deal ends more than six months of intense wrangling over the fiscal and structural reforms that Athens must implement in exchange for loans from its third, €86bn bailout programme.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Unions vow strike action after leftist-led government agrees
to further slash pensions and cut tax breaks
Helena Smith in Athens
Tuesday 2 May 2017 19.24 BST
The long road to Greece emerging from its worst financial crisis in modern times reached another milestone on Tuesday as the country concluded a crucial compliance review that will allow it to avert default in July.
At the cost of yet more painful austerity – in the form of extra pension cuts and tax increases – international creditors agreed to disburse €7.5bn (£6.3bn) in emergency loans to enable Athens to honour maturing debt repayments. More importantly, lenders accepted to set talks in motion on making Greece’s debt mountain more manageable – vital if the country is to gain access to the capital markets from which it has been almost completely exiled since 2009.
The breakthrough, after marathon 12-hour talks, became apparent only when the Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, announced in the small hours that “white smoke” had been achieved. “There is white smoke … The negotiation is finished with agreement on all the issues,” he said. “We now have a decision that the Greek government will be called to enforce with laws and decisions.”
The deal ends more than six months of intense wrangling over the fiscal and structural reforms that Athens must implement in exchange for loans from its third, €86bn bailout programme.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/02/greece-bailout-deal-austerity-strike-pensions-tax-breaks
