The Telegraph: Greece begins a new economy odyssey after a decade lost at sea

“This is a day of liberation,” Alexis Tsipras declared this week on the Greek island of Ithaca where Odysseus returned home following his own decade lost at sea.

The Greek prime minister said that his country’s “modern-day odyssey” had finally come to an end as he declared victory.

The final act in this Greek tragedy, a third tranche of a €289bn (£260bn) bailout programme, had been successfully completed. Greece could finally stand on its own two feet without the crutch of the Eurozone, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. In Tsipras’s mythic telling it would now return to financial markets for its debt needs and decide its own fate.

But, in truth, the ‘liberated’ country will remain shackled by creditors and markets for decades to come.

Fiscal rules stipulated by the bailout lenders will cap spending for the next 42 years while restoring the market’s faith will be vital to obtaining low borrowing rates in the future.

source: thetelegraph.uk