Deal with creditors close: Greek PM

Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says his cash-strapped country’s leftist government is optimistic about reaching a vital deal with the international creditors over its bailout program, which expires in June.

“It appears that we have reached common ground with the institutions on a number of issues, and that makes us optimistic that we are really very close to an agreement,” Tsipras said at an annual economic conference in Athens late on Friday.

Athens has been under pressure by its troika of international lenders, namely the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to make reforms in its labor market as well as in pensions and taxation policies in exchange for a new bailout loan.

Amid the economic “deadlock” in the country, Greece had been hoping that reform plans proposed by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis would be sufficient for its international lenders to unblock USD-7.9-billion in remaining bailout money that the Mediterranean country needs to avoid defaulting on its foreign debt.

On May 12, Athens tapped into money from its emergency funds to meet a due debt of 750-million-euro (USD-845-million) payment to the IMF. However, Athens is currently in talks with the European Union, the ECB and the IMF to receive a 7.2-billion-euro (USD-7.9-billion) loan remaining from bailout funds promised to the country. The lenders are refusing to grant the loan unless Greece agrees to its terms, while Varoufakis insists that any bailout deal that would send his country into a “death spiral” will not be signed up.

Pointing that “several issues remain open,” the Greek premier also said, “I want to reassure the Greek people that there is no chance or possibility for the Greek government to retreat on the issue of wages and pensions.”

Tspiras’ comments came days after Varoufakis said he expected a final deal “in the next few days” following a meeting in the Belgian capital of Brussels on May 11, with his Eurozone peers. “There is going to be a communiqué on the progress we are making and this will be a very good paving stone towards a final conclusion,” Varoufakis said.

During their Monday meeting, the finance ministers “welcomed the progress that has been achieved so far... At the same time, we acknowledged that more time and effort are needed to bridge the gaps on the remaining open issues.”

Athens received two bailout packages in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of €240 billion (USD 272 billion) from the troika following its 2009 economic crisis. However, it has been unable to borrow on the international markets over the past few years due to high borrowing rates.

The administration of Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party won January 25 elections, has tried to renegotiate the terms of the country’s bailout it received in return for imposing harsh austerity measures.

During his electoral campaign, the 40-year-old Tsipras vowed to reconsider the austerity measures, which have triggered a wave of unemployment and poverty and mounting dissatisfaction in the country.

MIS/NN/HRB

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