Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appointed two respected bailout negotiators to head his economic team on Tuesday, moving to assure wary European partners that the new government will not backtrack on its cash-for-reform deal. Tsipras reappointed Euclid Tsakalotos as finance minister and made George Chouliarakis deputy finance minister.
Tsakalotos, a low-key Oxford University-trained Marxist economist, was at the finance helm when Greece and its creditors produced an 86 billion-euro loan accord on August.
Chouliarakis, who was finance minister in the caretaker government during the recent election campaign, was a senior member of the bailout negotiation team, known for his grasp of details. The appointments, which came as Tsipras appointed a mostly unchanged new Cabinet following re-election on Sunday, come ahead of a review by lenders starting next month on progress in meeting bailout targets, recapitalising the country's banks and holding discussions that Greece wants on debt relief.
"The markets will see this positively," said Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities in Athens. "It appeared the chemistry was right between Tsakalotos and lenders." Tsakalotos is a stark contrast to his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis, who quit Tsipras's government in disagreement over the bailout in July.
