Greece to receive new bailout tranche

Greece will receive new sixth bailout tranche from EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Saturday. "Since we are taking such difficult decisions and the Greek people are shouldering such great sacrifices, yes, the sixth tranche is assured," Venizelos said in an interview with the Vima weekly. Greece is supposed to introduce additional austerity measures in exchange for the tranche, which include salary and pension cuts as well as putting up to 30,000 of its 750,000 state employees on the so-called "labor reserve" in order to cut wages by 60 percent. In addition, the government plans to lower the wages and pay rises of state workers by around 20 percent apart from the cuts already imposed in the course of the last 18 months. The finance minister however ruled out the prospects of the country's debt default that are being widely speculated.