Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday there had been significant progress with lenders on a bailout review, and that he hoped for a comprehensive deal by April, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Creditors started fresh negotiations with Athens last week on signing off on a new bailout review under the terms of the country's 86 billion euro (74.86 billion pounds) financing facility. The talks have dragged on for months amid disagreement on fiscal targets and whether the International Monetary Fund will come on board.

The Greek economy suffered a severe blow at the end of last year, contracting by 1.2 per cent in the quarter and underscoring the hit to growth following a fresh setback in Athens’ €86bn bailout talks, the Financial Times reported. Figures from Elstat revealed the economy had unexpectedly shrunk three times more than its first estimate of 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016. It was the worst quarter since the height of Athens’ bailout woes in the summer of 2015 when country was bought to the brink of default and was forced to impose capital controls on its banking system.

About 1,500 people have held a peaceful anti-austerity protest outside an Athens hotel where Greek officials are holding bailout talks with the country's creditors, the International New York Times reported. Wednesday's protest was organized by a labor union affiliated with the Communist Party, which strongly opposes the bailouts that have kept Greece afloat since 2010 and ushered in waves of deeply-resented spending and income cuts and tax hikes.

Teams of officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund start work in Athens today knowing that euro area finance ministers and the international financial markets are keen for signs of progress on the next tranche of Greece’s €86bn bailout, the Financial Times reported. At stake is whether a deal can be struck on tax and pension reforms that would clear a big obstacle to the IMF’s becoming a full partner in the bailout.

Greece's era of austerity is over, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras claimed Friday, as he painted a positive picture of the reforms his government has agreed to take after the bailout program ends in 2018. Speaking in parliament, Tsipras described the deal reached Monday as an "exceptional success" and said it showed the country's creditors accepted Greece's insistence that it could no longer bear further budget austerity, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story.

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde signalled that Greek debt restructuring can wait and the country should focus on overhauling its economy for the duration of its latest bailout, which expires in 2018, the Irish Times reported on a Bloomberg News story. Speaking in a German television interview after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Ms Lagarde said “the volume of restructuring will clearly depend on how much reform, how much progress, how strong the Greek economy is” when the aid programme ends.

When asked what he thought about the prospect of yet more austerity to be imposed on Greece by its international creditors, Nicos Papapetrou was fairly short, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "I had better stop ... because I will start swearing," 49-year old Papapetrou, a shop assistant in Athens said. Greeks appeared resigned on Tuesday to accepting further budget cuts and tax rises after their government agreed to a last-minute compromise of new reforms to keep bailout funds flowing.

The eurozone’s most hawkish member states have laid out their positions ahead of a discussion on Greece’s bailout progress today, following an escalation in tensions between its creditors in recent weeks, the Financial Times reported.

Wanted: a chief executive to run Greece's bank-rescue fund. Job description: work hard and pray for a miracle. Greece has failed to find a boss for its Hellenic Financial Stability Fund since July, when its three-member executive team resigned, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A new CEO, offered the job in late October quit a week later. His predecessor, an interim boss, had lasted two months.

Greece's economy has met its budget targets and there is therefore no reason for further austerity measures to be imposed as part of a deal with bailout creditors, the government spokesman said Thursday. Greece has been struggling for months to conclude negotiations with its creditors on spending cuts and reforms demanded by European creditors and the International Monetary Fund as part of its third bailout program, The New Zealand Herald reported on an Associated Press story. It hopes to reach an agreement in time for a Monday meeting of eurozone finance ministers.