By Idyli Tsakiri
ATHENS (AA) – Thursday’s Eurogroup deal with Greece is “not perfect but it is something”, a finance expert told Anadolu Agency on Friday, commenting on new funding cash-strapped Athens will receive from international creditors.
On Thursday night, Eurozone finance ministers and representatives from the IMF, the European Stability Mechanism and the European Commission, agreed to supply Greece with €8.5 billion ($9.48 billion) in the coming months.
The deal has largely ended months of uncertainty about Greece’s struggling economy, currently being sustained by international loans and a punishing — and deeply unpopular — cycle of spending cuts.
“It is a decision that gives us a breath, but does not change the facts entirely,” said Nikos Malkoutzis, editor at Greek financial analysis website Macropolis.
Thursday’s agreement provides Greece with the necessary funds to repay part of its multi-billion-euro loans in July, and leaves approximately €1.6 billion for the country’s current financial needs, giving a boost to its financial liquidity, Malkoutzis told Anadolu Agency.
“There is still a lot to be done regarding the debt by the summer of 2018 but the deal puts us on the way to exit the bailout program,” he added.
Political analyst Dimitris Rapidis said “for the first time, there was a spirit of convergence between Europeans and the IMF on all issues — a positive signal in markets and the investment community”.
The deal allows the Greek government to go deeper into development policies, social policy and investments as well as tackling unemployment “without the continuous and dilatory evaluations of the [bailout] program,” Rapidis added.
-Bailout exit
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to discuss the Eurogroup deal.
Greece “has a lot of allies and supporters in the international stage,” Tsipras told Pavlopoulos, adding: “We managed to hold on to the hardcore of Europe”.
Pavlopoulos said Greece “must see yesterday’s decision as the starting point of the final great effort to get out of the crisis with [these] great and unfair sacrifices”.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos spoke to reporters on Thursday night right after the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels concluded and said “all sides tried for a compromise”.
“We are creating a road map so that Greece can turn a page,” he added, stressing the importance of additional help for Athens to complete the bailout program in the next 12 to 14 months.
However, Greece’s opposition remains unconvinced. Leader of the center-right New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has demanded a parliamentary discussion take place on Friday.
“The second evaluation of the program ended with a 16-month delay, at a great cost for Greek citizens and the economy,” Mitsotakis said.
Overall, Eurogroup’s outcome appears to have a positive impact on Greece economy, with the equity prices rising, on Friday, on the Athens Stock Exchange.
The basic share price index was up 1.04 percent, standing at 808,03 points at 11:00am and turnover at 17.85 million euros.
