ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday said his government was “on target” for a May 22 fiscal deal with its creditors to enable the country to meet July loan payments.

“I think the general picture is that we are on target to have a conclusion on May 22,” Tsipras said in Brussels, referring to a scheduled meeting of eurozone finance ministers needed to approve the deal.

Greece’s creditors — the European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF — on Tuesday resumed a long-delayed audit that is required for any agreement.

Disputes remain on reforms including labour rights and the breakup of Greek near-monopoly electricity provider PPC — both thorny issues for Tsipras’ leftist-led government.

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos has said that if there is agreement, the reforms can be approved by parliament by May 15.

Under pressure from its creditors, Athens earlier this month accepted to reduce pensions in 2019 and lower tax breaks in 2020.

These measures are worth around 3.6 billion euro ($3.8bn).

However, Tsipras has said he will not apply these cuts without a clear pledge later this month on debt-easing measures for Greece.

Athens also hopes to be finally allowed access to the European Central Bank’s asset purchase programme, known as quantitative easing, or QE, to help its return to bond markets.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017