Greek PM says debt relief talks to follow third review

Discussions on the long-term sustainability of Greece’s debt are expected to start after the conclusion of a review of reforms by its lenders, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday.

Tsipras told lawmakers of his leftist SYRIZA party that discussions with lenders were progressing well. The government has previously said that talks with lenders on the bailout review would be concluded by January.

“Immediately after the conclusion of the third review a discussion is expected to start on the long-term viability of debt, and [Greece will] enter the final stretch for emerging from the bailout,” he told parliamentarians.

A third review, or round of discussions with creditors on the pace of reforms, launched in October, were being held in an “unusually good climate,” Tsipras said.

Debt relief has become a rallying cry of Tsipras’s administration since he swept to power in 2015, promising to do away with austerity only to agree to a new bailout that year to avert bankruptcy and ejection from the eurozone.

[Reuters]