Greece, OECD to draft reform programme to boost growth: Tsipras

ATHENS - Agence France-Presse

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gives a press conference after his meeting with the head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Athens on February 11, 2015. AFP Photo

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Feb. 11 announced plans to work with the OECD to draft a programme of reforms to boost growth in the debt-laden country, which is hoping to renegotiate its bailout commitments.
      
The programme will be based "not on what was previously decided but on popular mandate," he told a news conference after meeting Angel Gurria, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
      
Tsipras said it would also be anchored in the government policies presented to parliament on Sunday, which include a raft of emergency social measures that would break the conditions of the bailout if implemented.
      
"I will be in Paris soon to officialise this cooperation and agree on the steps to take," he said.
      
The meeting came as his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was in Brussels for an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting on the bailout drama, amid fears that Greece would shirk its obligations.        

Gurria said the OECD was "here to work with and for Greece," adding: "Our message is, count on the OECD to implement your programme."       

The Greek stock market opened down Wednesday and dropped more than 3.0 percent after the EU snubbed a leaked 10-point plan the radical left government was expected to present to Brussels.        

Tsipras was quick to reassure ordinary Greeks angry over perceived intervention from Germany and the EU that "this isn't someone from abroad coming here and telling us what to do."       

"We have aims in common with the OECD and we can cooperate closely to realise these aims," he said.
      
Greece raised 1.14 billion euros in three-month bonds on Wednesday, but rates were up and demand was down for the second time in a row for the new government, after difficulties in selling six-month paper last week.
      
The rate was 2.5 percent, compared with 2.15 percent secured on comparable bonds issued on January 14.