Greece says heading to new direction after Eurogroup deal

Greece is heading toward a new direction after the Eurogroup agreement was reached in Brussels Friday on the post-bailout cooperation with international creditors, a Greek government spokesman said on Saturday.

After the marathon talks, Greece's creditors agreed to extend the country's loan agreement for another four months if they accept the list of reforms Athens will present on Monday, Gavriil Sakellaridis told Greek media.

If the process goes smoothly, Greece will be receiving further aid by lenders after the current four-year bailout expires on Feb. 28, the spokesman added.

He called on the main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, which was ruling the country until recently, and its socialist partner PASOK to "adopt to the new reality to help the country."

ND spokesman Kostas Karagounis commented that Friday's deal "leads to a new memorandum" after four months, while the previous government coalition had brought Greece to the brink of the exit from the bailout at the end of this February.

Friday's deal received with mixed responses from politicians, businessmen, analysts and ordinary Greeks in Anthen. On one hand, they welcomed the deal as an exit from the mounting uncertainty of the past few weeks which had increased fears of an imminent rift with creditors, a cash crunch in March.

On the other hand, they noted that, besides the changing of terms used by the anti-bailout government, the conditions for the agreement were very strict, leaving small room to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to implement his policy program.

Greece agreed not to introduce any policies that could have a negative impact on fiscal goals without prior consultations with creditors.

The 11 billion euros left in Greece's bank recapitalization fund were to return to the European Financial Stability Facility and will be disbursed only for the banking sector if needed.

The euro traded up 0.1 percent at 1.14 against the U.S. dollar on Friday. Endi