Euclid Tsakalotos

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday issued a flat denial to the government's request to cancel the implementation of the planned pension cut in January 2019, while Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos appeared reserved about Berlin's attitude as he responded to investors' questions in London a day after meeting his German counterpart.

The government remains a long way from getting the green light to cancel the implementation planned pension cuts in January, as an informal meeting in Germany indicated on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Wednesday he hoped "reason will prevail" in talks with Greece's lenders and they will agree that pensions do not need to be cut further in 2019.

"The pension cuts are not a structural measure. It doesn't affect the viability of the pension system," he was quoted as saying in an interview with news website newport.gr.

Greece plans to further loosen capital controls soon and is on track to lift all restrictions imposed three years ago, its finance minister said on Saturday.

"We will have new easing (of capital controls) very soon," Euclid Tsakalotos was quoted as saying in an interview with Naftemporiki newspaper, without specifying when.

A decision on whether or not Greece will be obliged to implement fresh pension cuts in January will not be taken until a summit of eurozone finance ministers in November, it emerged yesterday as representatives of Greece's creditors met with government officials in Athens.

The issue of the pension cuts scheduled for January will dominate Wednesday's meeting between the creditors' mission chiefs and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in Athens, with senior officials stressing that the eurozone expects Athens to implement the fiscal commitments and the reforms it has pledged.

The union of public university professors, POSDEP, will be on strike on Monday and Tuesday, the first two days of the September exam period, in what it says is a warning of more possible action to come if professors' demands are not addressed.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave his cabinet a light reshuffle on Tuesday, promoting certain close associates and bringing in some new faces while keeping key ministry posts untouched.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos all kept their jobs, as had been widely expected.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reshuffled his cabinet on Monday, keeping key ministers in place while bringing in some new faces. 

As expected, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, Tsipras's coalition partner, kept their posts.

European People's Party president Manfred Weber welcomed on Sunday Greece's completion of its third bailout program, but said the country could have exited sooner if it wasn't run by the SYRIZA-led coalition.