We need a debt-restructuring deal to return to markets soon, Tsipras said to WSJ

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talked to The Wall Street Journal about the future goal of Greece which is to return to bond markets soon.

More specifically, Prime Minister said that Greece could return to bond markets soon, if it reached a debt-restructuring deal with creditors in the coming months warning that migration crisis in Europe threatened efforts of economic recovery of Greece.

“The goal is to return to the markets,” the Greek Prime Minister told The Wall Street Journal. “If there is a good decision on the debt issue, Greece could return to markets shortly after debt restructuring.”

As WSJ mentions discussions on debt reconstruction are expected to start later this year, when the first review of the country’s new bailout program is successfully completed.

Regarding the agreement signed with Greece’s creditors, Alexis Tsipras said it was necessary so as to avoid a catastrophic exit from the eurozone and that parts of it are an improvement to earlier bailout programs.

“The agreement for the first time has a realistic approach; the adjustment is milder,” Mr. Tsipras said while being in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Moreover, he talked about economic growth saying that Greece was expected to return to growth in the second half of 2016. However, he warned that Europe’s migration crisis could harm its fragile economy and mainly tourism industry.

Mr. Tsipras also urged European leaders to act quickly and show solidarity so as to handle the migration crisis. “United Europe won when the wall fell in Berlin,” he said. But “if now, we build walls in Europe, this is not the Europe of our common future.”

Referring to the negotiations he had with Greece’s creditors this year, Mr. Tsipras said that he had known that the talks would be difficult. But he was surprised by some extreme conservative forces within Europe which were trying to get Greece out of the eurozone.