Greece

As Greece prepares to emerge from one of the region’s most wrenching economic periods, its creditors are drawing up plans to ensure it is never a problem for the rest of Europe again, the International New York Times reported. European Union officials will unveil a blueprint in Brussels on Thursday to help the beleaguered country stand on its own once it comes off its third financial bailout in August. They have heralded Greece’s revival, and pointed to the closing of its bailout as a symbolic end to a ruinous financial crisis.

On Aug. 20, Greece is due to graduate from its third international rescue program. The country is still saddled with a towering public debt — nearly 180 percent of national income — and Europe’s other governments are divided over how much more relief to grant, Bloomberg News reported. Without a sizable package of new concessions, Greece’s debt burden is unlikely to stabilize. Creditors are seeking assurances that the country won’t go back to the spending that brought the economy to the brink of collapse in 2009.

Greece will need a "credible package" of measures to help deal with its oversize debt as it leaves its eight-year international bailout program in August, the European Commission's vice president said Friday. Helping Greece manage its debt, which stands at just under 180 percent of gross domestic product, is one of the crucial elements of an agreement on the country's bailout exit, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Greece hopes to hammer out the deal with creditors at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on June 21.

Greece’s parliament approved the last big austerity package of its eight-year bailout program Thursday, preparing the country for its full return to financing itself on bond markets beginning this summer, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greek lawmakers from the ruling coalition, led by the left-wing Syriza party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, passed a package of measures including pension cuts, income-tax rises and privatizations. The overhauls are required for the country to receive about €11 billion of financing from the eurozone’s bailout fund.

Greece’s supreme court has rejected an appeal by the country’s former statistics chief to quash his conviction in 2017 on charges of violation of duty, the Financial Times reported. According to people with knowledge of the decision, which has not yet been officially made public, the supreme court upheld the ruling against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the statistical agency Elstat, even after the court’s own prosecutor asked for the conviction to be annulled.

Sitting in a cramped office a few streets away from the headquarters of Greece’s Public Power Corporation, trade unionist Giorgos Adamides admitted that the privatisation of the sprawling state-owned electricity utility could no longer be postponed, the Financial Times reported. “It’s a national crime that the government is selling off power plants and we [the union] fought hard against it but the troika [of Greece’s international creditors] have the upper hand,” said the president of Genop-DEH, the power workers’ union.

The Greek government’s master plan to restore growth, after it emerges from eight years under harsh bailout conditions this August, revolves around a key factor that could jump start its economy: its banks. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented to his cabinet on Monday in Athens the 110-page plan, which sets as its main priority the reduction of non-performing loans, the elimination of capital restrictions and the improvement of bank governance, Bloomberg News reported.

Greece and its creditors have agreed on the next steps for completing the country’s final bailout review, a key milestone for exiting the program and striking a deal on debt relief, the Irish Times reported. Government officials and representatives from the International Monetary Fund and euro-zone creditor institutions completed a week of discussions in Athens on Saturday. Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos said reaching a technical deal to conclude the fourth bailout review, the so-called staff level agreement (SLA), paves the way for discussion of debt relief measures.

Bailout inspectors have returned to Athens as Greece races to comply with the final terms of its rescue program, which ends in August. Negotiations resumed Monday, with Greece still facing dozens of measures to address in the next ten days to remain on track for an agreement next month on the terms of bailout debt repayment after the program ends, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story.

Greece’s four biggest banks would take a €15.5bn hit to their average capital in a future economic downturn, according to the results of the European Central Bank’s stress test of the country’s main lenders. The ECB’s health check of the Greek banking system is designed to determine if any of the banks need extra equity before the country enters talks on leaving its eight-year bailout programme. Senior Greek officials said the outcome of the exercise meant there was “no immediate need for a capital increase by any bank”.