Greek PM ‘confident’ of third debt deal

Greece and its worldwide lenders reached a multibillion-euro bailout agreement yesterday, potentially saving the country from financial ruin.

The Greek parliament late on Tuesday tabled a crucial vote on the text of an global bailout agreement between Athens and its creditors, the parliament said on its website.

Euro-area governments need time to assess the preliminary accord between Greece, its global creditors and the European Stability Mechanism before possible approval of a proposed 85 billion euros ($95 billion) in aid, Finance Ministry spokesman Juerg Weissgerber said Wednesday.

Though the radical left-led 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.

Earlier on Tuesday, Euclid Tsakaloto, Greece’s finance minister, told reporters that discussions have “moved very far forward” and that “two or three details remain”.

Greece had been hoping for €86bn in fresh loans – but some Eurozone member states had expressed concerns that this figure was too high, and would have been politically sensitive.

If the agreement is finalized quickly enough, Greece can avoid defaulting on a big debt repayment next week.

He added that he had seen the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble “go to the Bundestag and effectively confess this deal is not going to work”.

The Greek economy, which crawled out of a six-year recession only in 2014, will shrink 2.3 percent in 2015 and another 1.3 percent in 2016, they said.

“Finally, we have white smoke”, the official said.

Eurozone ministers then agreed to a whopping $7 billion bridging loan as to finance the Greece while the remaining funds were being negotiated for a final deal.

The statement assured there was “absolutely no risk of a haircut on deposits”, apparently ruling out the possibility that authorities could raid people’s savings to pay off some of the country’s enormous debts.

The Kathimerini newspaper said the Greek government would have to immediately implement 35 measures before the deal can kick in.

In a related development, Tsipras’s office said that European Parliament President Martin Schulz told the Greek leader he would “publicly call” on the German government and Parliament to approve the deal.

Initial reports say some aspects of the deal include phasing out early retirement, agreeing to recapitalize banks and reviewing the Greek social welfare system.