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Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece on December 25, 2017. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Meanwhile a new poll in Greece has revealed that most citizens are not buying the leftist-led government’s cheery vision of a ‘clean exit’ from international supervision when the country’s latest bailout programme officially ends next year.

Helena Smith reports from Athens

In theory, Greeks should be going into the new year on an optimistic note. After seven years of gruelling austerity – the price of three economic adjustment programmes that have kept the debt stricken country afloat – Athens’ latest bailout officially expires in August 2018.

But the excoriating terms attached to financial rescue won’t end there, with the result that most Greeks are not buying government assertions of post-bailout bliss come the summer.

Instead, a poll conducted on behalf of the Real News newspaper by MRB Hellas found that 66.3% of respondents are convinced that international monitoring of Greek finances will continue in some form.

A mere 17% accept the official version: that Greece will make a ‘clean exit,’ weaning itself off borrowed funds by returning to international capital markets. Under that scenario – one vividly expanded by prime minister Alexis Tsipras – Athens will have completed a compliance review in time for the country to build up a cash buffer that would enable it to return to markets and begin debt relief talks by the summer.

However, only one in four Greeks expect a market return. Three out of five don’t think Greece would be able to tap markets to cover debt payments, according to the survey.