Greek PM vows bailout exit in 2018

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Greece will exit successfully its bailout program in 2018 helped by strong growth, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Saturday.

Addressing a Greek public worn out by austerity and skeptical after years of reform efforts have failed to fix the country’s woes, Tsipras vowed to end lenders’ supervision next year.

“The country, after eight whole years, will have exited bailouts and suffocating supervision,” Tsipras said in his annual policy speech in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Greece’s current international bailout, worth 86 billion euros, expires next year. Tsipras’ term ends a year later.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers a speech in Thessaloniki, Greece, September 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Tsipras said Athens would continue to outperform its fiscal targets and fight endemic tax evasion to create fiscal room for tax cuts that would alleviate the burden on businesses and households, long squeezed by the debt crisis.

Greece has received about 260 billion euros in bailout aid from its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund since 2010 in return for draconian austerity which has wiped out a quarter of its output and cut tens of thousands of jobs.

Unemployment stood at 21.2 percent in June, the euro zone’s highest, with young Greeks the hardest hit.

Greece’s economy is expected to grow by about two percent in 2018, a sign that sacrifices are bearing fruit, Tsipras said outlining initiatives to boost employment and fight a brain drain.

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Source(s): Reuters