For once in a tie, Greek PM Tsipras hails new debt deal

UNITED STATES.- For once sporting a necktie, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday pledged to tread the path of fiscal prudence after international creditors announced new debt relief measures to wean his country off its eight-year bailout program.

Tsipras said the deal hammered out early Friday in Luxembourg was a historic milestone for his austerity-battered country, whose third — and last — bailout deal runs out two months from now.

“Greece is once again becoming a normal country, regaining its political and financial independence,” Tsipras told a gathering of the 153 lawmakers in his left-led governing coalition in Athens.

Greek bond markets rose on the news of the deal, leading to a drop in the government’s borrowing rates. The yield on Greece’s benchmark 10-year bond eased 0.2 percentage points to 4.1 percent. The main stock index opened more than 2 percent up, but closed the day marginally down.

“Our great challenge is not to return to fiscal derailment but to prove that we can manage things on our own,” Tsipras told the lawmakers.

For the only time since he first assumed office in January 2015, Tsipras donned a tie — a burgundy affair worn with a white shirt and blue suit. It sat slightly askew, and he ostentatiously removed it at the end of his speech.

The left-wing politician eschews neckties, while otherwise conforming to the dress code of international leaders. He said soon after being elected that he would only wear one when Greece had settled its debt problems.

Over the following three years, he received several ties from the more playful of his foreign colleagues.

The agreement concluded by finance ministers from fellow members of the 19-member eurozone grants Greece a ten year extension in repaying a large chunk of its crippling debt load.