Greece has agreed new austerity measures with international lenders, but also secured another two years to implement them, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday.
That clears the way for Athens to receive a much-needed 31.5 billion euro tranche to stave off a sovereign default.
"Today we obtained the extension," Stournaras said, Suddeutsche Zeitung reported.
Under the new package of austerity measures reported by the Greek media, Greece will cut spending and raise taxes to save a total of 13.9 billion euros over two years, and also reform national labor and insurance legislation.
Final agreement on Greek labor market reform was reached during a video conference, Stournaras said.
“I spoke during the whole of the evening with the troika [of international lenders]. On Friday and on Monday we’ll inform the Eurogroup,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Greece is expecting its next tranche of financial aid by mid-November. The creditors have until now refused to grant the next 31.5-billion euro tranche unless Greece implements a new round of budgetary cuts and tax increases.
