"Greece will not just return to [economic] growth in 2017, but to fast growth. The growth forecast for 2017 is 2.7 percent and for 2018, it is 3.1 percent… Greece has everything it needs to enter financial markets in 2017 independently," Tsipras said at the presentation of an equity fund set up by the European Investment Bank.
The prime minister added that the government's primary goal was to successfully complete the second review of the reforms implemented in the country to overcome the economic crisis.
According to Tsipras, the equity fund will be able to contribute more than 1 billion euros (approximately $1,044,900,000) to the non-financial sector of the Greek economy.
Greece signed a deal with its creditors, the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB) and some eurozone nations, in July 2015 for a third bailout package worth $96 billion in exchange for unpopular austerity reforms that include pension cuts and tax hikes.
In October, the eurogroup unlocked a $1.2 billion installment of the bailout after the completion of the first review of Greek reforms. Another $3 billion were unlocked in late October.
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