Reuters – Greece expects to make a clean break with official lenders when its international bailout expires in August and has no reason to seek a precautionary credit line, its finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos has told Reuters.
In coming months, Tsakalotos said, the country would be preparing its own post-bailout plan with an emphasis on reforms, social policies and growth.
He also said discussions would soon commence with euro zone lenders on debt relief along the lines of a French proposal to link the level of debt restructuring to economic performance.
Post-program surveillance schemes were common to other European member states which sought financial aid, Tsakalotos said. But Greece’s own post-bailout plan would be more pro-active.
It would, he said, show lenders and the markets that Greece had ownership over its own program of future reforms and growth strategies, rather than Brussels.
“We are thinking, by Easter, of preparing our own plan .. to show both the institutions but also the markets that it is our program, it has ownership… it hasn’t been imposed, it’s not a matter of compromise,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund has not yet decided if it will participate in Greece’s latest bailout program, having repeatedly voiced concern at the sustainability of the country’s debt pile.
Greece and its lenders are expected to flesh out a French proposed mechanism which was presented in June and will link debt relief to Greece’s growth rates. The economy is expected to grow by up to 2.5 percent this year and in 2019.
