Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talks to the press after an emergency European Union leaders summit on immigration at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 24, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal
July 2, 2018
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece will be able to finance its needs after it exits its bailout in August but will not return to the ways of the past that led it to the debt crisis, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told his cabinet on Monday.
The debt relief deal that Athens agreed with its international lenders in June was a decisive step, Tsipras said, adding that Greece had secured stable access to money markets after its bailout expires on Aug. 20.
The cash buffer Athens has built along with its lenders will help it cover its needs for at least two years, he said.
“We have secured a buffer for any potential market turmoil … due to external factors,” Tsipras said. “Therefore, the market exits will be without any funding pressure.”
In September, Greece “will be able to stand on its own feet”, the leftist premier told his ministers, urging them to help put together Greece’s post bailout plan.
He added however that Greece needs to implement a “prudent” fiscal policy in the post-bailout period.
“This new political path that we are called to embark upon, the new day that we must plan, cannot be a return to the past, to the policies and the choices of the old political system, to the days of corruption and tax evasion,” he said.
(Reporting by Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
