Whoa! The Greek government is now ready to sign on to a bailout package it threw out just days ago, but the about-face won’t fix the country’s crisis any time soon.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wrote to European leaders and the International Monetary Fund, accepting most of the conditions they had attached to releasing more cash, a European official told CNNMoney.
“[Greece] is prepared to accept this staff level agreement subject to the following amendments, additions or clarifications,” Tsipras wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN.
The contents of a letter were first reported by the Financial Times Wednesday morning.
The first change he listed — and probably the most significant — is for Greece to continue levying a lower rate of sales tax on its many islands. Creditors wanted the discount eliminated.
Otherwise, the changes mainly concern slight delays to pension reforms and tax increases that the creditors had demanded.
European officials are assessing the dramatic Greek reversal, and will present their initial findings on a call with eurozone finance ministers later Wednesday.
“And then it’s for the eurogroup, for member states to decide on the course of further action,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commissioner for the euro.
This is not the end of Greece’s financial crisis, nor does it remove the risk that the country may have to leave the euro.
That’s because the only mechanism for Europe to hand over rescue loans expired at midnight. And Greece defaulted on a payment to the IMF Tuesday, complicating its role in any future bailout.
A new agreement could take weeks to negotiate, and Greece may need a new government first.
Meanwhile, Greek banks remained shuttered, and the country’s economy weakens by the day.
