Bloomberg reported on Wednesday afternoon that Athens and its institutional creditors are near a conclusion of negotiations to achieve a staff-level agreement, the necessary precursor for a successful closing of the now overdue second review of the Greek bailout program.
The news agency's dispatch came hours after embattled Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras publicly referred to a Eurozone summit in case negotiations failed to generate a timely deal between the two sides.
According to the Bloomberg report, the leftist-rightist coalition government would agree to slashing social security spending by 1 percent of GDP in 2019, followed by a reduction in the annual tax-free threshold the following year, in 2020. However, if fiscal targets appear fleeting, then tax measures would be bumped up by a year, Bloomberg said.
In earlier comments in Athens while receiving EU Council President Donald Tusk, Tsipras once again repeated that an agreement is very close, while at the same time referring to the possibility of a Euro area summit -- which his government would request -- in case the final stretch is not covered by Friday's Eurogroup meeting in Malta.
