ATHENS: Greece will spare its elderly further pensions cuts in its 2019 budget, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Saturday, after receiving European Commission approval on the issue.

“The European Commission yesterday approved the 2019 Greek budget without new pensions cuts after eight years of austerity,” Tsipras said. Greece is looking forward to its first budget in a decade that does not subject the country to a bailout, having exited austerity in August.

Tsipras had predicted in September that pensions cuts would not prove necessary as he sought to hammer out a budget that would satisfy international lenders.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2018