<div>Greece prepared today to restart its struggling economy with a revamped government, a bank reboot and a new round of tax hikes agreed after months of fraught confrontation with its creditors.<br /><br />Banks are set to reopen tomorrow after a three-week shutdown estimated to have cost the economy some 3.0 billion euros (USD 3.3 billion) in market shortages and export disruption.<br /><br />Crisis-hit Greeks will also have to endure widespread price hikes with a broad batch of goods and services -- from sugar and cocoa to condoms and funerals -- now taxed at 23 per cent, up from 13 per cent.<br /><br />The measures are part of a tough fiscal package Greece had to agree to last week to earn a three-year bailout from its international creditors and avoid crashing out of the eurozone.<br /><br />The austerity package caused a mutiny among lawmakers of the ruling radical Syriza party, forcing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to carry out a limited reshuffle on Friday.<br /><br />Even so, most analysts and even government officials say early elections are now inevitable, and are likely to be held in September.<br /><br />Tsipras -- who barely has time to eat or sleep, according to his mother -- faces a fresh challenge in parliament on Wednesday to approve a second wave of reforms tied to its economic rescue.<br /><br />The leftist government has agreed to raise taxes, overhaul its ailing pension system and commit to privatisations it had previously opposed, in exchange for a bailout of up to 86 billion euros (USD 94 billion) over the next three years.<br /><br />The draconian agreement -- accepted by a party that came to power in January promising to end austerity -- came after over 61 per cent of Greeks on July 5 rejected further cuts in a referendum called by Tsipras himself.<br /><br />His critics accuse the prime minister of kowtowing to blackmail by Greece's creditors, who had threatened to expel the country from the euro.<br /><br />"The commission is prepared for everything... We have a Grexit scenario, prepared in detail," European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker had warned on July 8.<br /><br />The Kathimerini newspaper today said the "Grexit" plan, which also entailed Greece's expulsion from the Schengen Treaty, had been secretly prepared in less than a month by a 15-member European Commission team.</div>
<div>Greece prepared today to restart its struggling economy with a revamped government, a bank reboot and a new round of tax hikes agreed after months of fraught confrontation with its creditors.<br /><br />Banks are set to reopen tomorrow after a three-week shutdown estimated to have cost the economy some 3.0 billion euros (USD 3.3 billion) in market shortages and export disruption.<br /><br />Crisis-hit Greeks will also have to endure widespread price hikes with a broad batch of goods and services -- from sugar and cocoa to condoms and funerals -- now taxed at 23 per cent, up from 13 per cent.<br /><br />The measures are part of a tough fiscal package Greece had to agree to last week to earn a three-year bailout from its international creditors and avoid crashing out of the eurozone.<br /><br />The austerity package caused a mutiny among lawmakers of the ruling radical Syriza party, forcing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to carry out a limited reshuffle on Friday.<br /><br />Even so, most analysts and even government officials say early elections are now inevitable, and are likely to be held in September.<br /><br />Tsipras -- who barely has time to eat or sleep, according to his mother -- faces a fresh challenge in parliament on Wednesday to approve a second wave of reforms tied to its economic rescue.<br /><br />The leftist government has agreed to raise taxes, overhaul its ailing pension system and commit to privatisations it had previously opposed, in exchange for a bailout of up to 86 billion euros (USD 94 billion) over the next three years.<br /><br />The draconian agreement -- accepted by a party that came to power in January promising to end austerity -- came after over 61 per cent of Greeks on July 5 rejected further cuts in a referendum called by Tsipras himself.<br /><br />His critics accuse the prime minister of kowtowing to blackmail by Greece's creditors, who had threatened to expel the country from the euro.<br /><br />"The commission is prepared for everything... We have a Grexit scenario, prepared in detail," European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker had warned on July 8.<br /><br />The Kathimerini newspaper today said the "Grexit" plan, which also entailed Greece's expulsion from the Schengen Treaty, had been secretly prepared in less than a month by a 15-member European Commission team.</div>