Greece emerged from the biggest bailout in economic history on Monday after nine years of creditor-mandated austerity, with European institutions hailing the exit a success but jaded Greeks finding little reason to celebrate.
The milestone weans the debt-burdened eurozone member off financial lifelines offered on three occasions by creditors over the best part of a decade, and the country will now need to support itself.
Exit from crisis
Athens will rely on bond markets to refinance its debt, officially leaving behind a crisis that shrank its economy by a quarter and pushed many into poverty.
Since early 2010, Greece has relied on more than €260 billion ($300 billion) lent by its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the eurozone’s bailout fund, expressed confidence that Athens could manage without an international financial safety net.
“Today we can safely conclude the ESM programme with no more follow-up rescue programmes as, for the first time since early 2010, Greece can stand on its own feet,” Mario Centeno, the chairman of the ESM’s board of governors, said in a statement.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to address the nation on Tuesday to mark Greece regaining fiscal sovereignty and the ability set its own economic policies. Greek media reported he would symbolically make the speech on Ithaca, the island where Odysseus returned home from the Trojan war after a 10-year voyage recounted by classical poet Homer. “We are entering a new era for the Greek economy and Greece,” government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told Real FM radio.