Greek pension cuts in balance as EU-IMF inspectors visit

Hopes in Greece that it will have fiscal leeway to cancel unpopular pension cuts due next year are in the balance, sources said on Wednesday, as the first inspection visit by its former lenders since it exited its bailout began.

The country emerged from the biggest economic rescue in history in late August after almost nine years of creditor-mandated austerity.

Its former international lenders at the European Union and International Monetary Fund have promised to ease repayment terms on its huge debt pile, proportionally the biggest in the bloc.

Athens has in exchange agreed to hit specific fiscal targets up to 2022.

The lenders' inspectors began their first assessment of Greece's progress on those measures on Wednesday.

"It seems that Greece will outperform its fiscal target by about 0.5 percentage points this year and that gives the government...