The media this morning is of the view that time is very much of the essence if emergency bailout funds are to be disbursed before Greece’s €7.5bn debt repayment matures in July, reports our correspondent Helena Smith:

While issuing a statement saying the ball is now in the creditors’ court, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has also attempted to soften the blow of measures his government would never normally endorse by shifting the narrative to the issue of debt.

Ahead of the vote, the leftist leader enthused that soon he could be “forced to wear a tie”.

“The news is so positive that we are having difficulty believing it,” he told parliamentary reporters adding that the German chancellor Angela Merkel had waded in personally saying she would deal with the debt issue.

The once fiery anti-austerian has long said he will only wear a tie once the Greek debt problem is solved with substantial debt relief. If Athens is able to write down a debt load now hovering around 180% of GDP – the equivalent of the GDP of South Africa – the government hopes Greece will then be included in the ECB’s quantitative easing program, thus opening the way to the country once again tapping international markets. Athens’ dependency on international loans has only exacerbated the debt load.