All lights ‘set on green’ for Greek bailout end

DEAD SEA RESORT, JORDAN (Reuters) – Greece’s exit from a bailout program instituted by the eurozone and International Monetary Fund looks set to proceed in August, Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said yesterday. He is one of 19 eurozone finance ministers who will meet next month to hammer out what Greece hopes will be a post-exit plan for substantial debt relief following eight years of near constant crisis fighting. The plan could close what has been a rough chapter in the bloc’s history that at various stages had threatened the future of the entire euro project. Speaking to Reuters yesterday after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s annual meeting, Gramegna said Greece has fulfilled all the demands made of it by its creditors following a series of reforms made in recent years. “The economy is growing in a satisfactory manner and the primary surplus of the Greek budget is higher than the very high threshold that has been set,” he said. Gramegna said “all lights are set on green” to close this difficult chapter of history for Greece and the eurozone. Access to debt relief should also be used as an incentive to keep Athens on track with its recovery program, he said. “It has always been in the back of the mind that something has to be done in terms of debt relief,” Gramegna said: “There are many ways of doing this and it has not been decided, but the principle has been agreed.”