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Rescue for Greece

The deal, rightly termed as a financial rescue, has come on the eleventh day as Greece kept its fingers crossed whether to default or opt for more brinkmanship measures.

The leftist dispensation in Athens has heaved a sigh of relief. The four-month interim deal that was struck in Brussels will go a long way in fomenting a new relationship with the capitalist European Union. The onus is now on Greece to come out with a list of reforms, spelt out in a priority manner, so that its hefty debt could be re-negotiated by the troika of international lenders. It is, however, not clear what benchmarks — if any — were agreed by Athens, as it signed on the dotted line with the creditors that were unrelenting at the outset to even reconsider the bailout package.

The deal, rightly termed as a financial rescue, has come on the eleventh day as Greece kept its fingers crossed whether to default or opt for more brinkmanship measures. With dialogue and commitment having won the day for the 28-member union, the consolation is that embattled Greece will continue to be part of the monetary union and will not exit euro — at least for the time being. It is a positive achievement as far as retaining the status quo and at the same time lending an attentive ear to the new power brokers in Greece.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his financial wizard, Yanis Varoufakis now have a more difficult task to deliver: i.e., to uphold their electoral pledges of doing away with austerity policies and at the same harnessing enough cash in the coffers to pay off the debt. How this can be translated in to reality is not easy to comment, especially in view of new commitments that Athens will be compelled to make in the next few weeks when the interim accord is revisited. One thing, however, seems to be round the corner: the recession-battered nation will once again be asked to eat the humble pie in the form of indirect taxes and surcharges in a more sugar-coated manner.