Deal reached on Greek bailout

The country’s Syriza leadership and its Eurozone creditors have fleshed out the terms of an €86bn (£61bn) third bailout, nearly a month after the two sides agreed to it in principle.

Greece is near to securing a new bailout agreement, possibly within the day, Euclid Tsakalotos, Greek finance minister has said, according to the AP news agency.

The Greek government is seeking to conclude talks on a rescue programme by Tuesday, leaving enough time for national parliaments to assess the deal so funds can be disbursed for an August 20 payment to the European Central Bank (ECB).

After heated, highly-publicized negotiations, in which Greece defaulted on an International Monetary Fund payment and a referendum rejecting terms set by creditors was held, a tentative deal was reached July 13.

Greece is hoping to have the deal approved before a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Friday.

Greece and its creditors have struck a deal on a new bailout for the near-bankrupt country, local media reported Tuesday, following two weeks of intense negotiations.

Popular misgivings run deep in Germany, the euro zone country that has already contributed most to Greece’s two bailouts since 2010, about funneling yet more money to Athens. Those so-called primary surpluses would rise to 1.75 percent in 2017 and 3.5 percent in 2018.

He suggested that Greece and its creditors needed to confront the “actual position” and start afresh in finding solutions to the problems afflicting the Greek economy.

“This practically means that with the current agreement there will be no fiscal burden – in other words new measures – in the immediate future”, the note read.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said Greek banks would get 10 billion euros in recapitalisation funds “immediately” and would be recapitalised by the end of the year. Although Tsipras has suffered major dissent within his radical left Syriza party, pro-European opposition parties are nearly certain to vote in favor, meaning the agreement will go through.

The next stage is even harder: implementing structural reforms that are as or even more demanding than the ones undertaken by previous governments.

In return, Greece must accept more austerity measures, including painful tax hikes, spending cuts and reforms to modernise the economy.

Though the government was elected on a staunchly anti-austerity platform in January, it has been forced into a policy U-turn after bailout talks came close to collapse last month.

The package had been expected to be worth up to 86 billion euros but there had been no confirmation of its size and whether the funding bill had crept up as Greece returned to recession.

That has stoked speculation that Tsipras will call early elections after the bailout deal is signed.