FILE PHOTO: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses lawmakers during a parliamentary session on a debt relief the country reached with its European lenders in Athens, Greece, July 5, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday the country had good reason to expect better days ahead after formally exiting its last financial bailout, putting an epilogue to a dramatic nine-year debt crisis.

“Today a new day is dawning in our country, a historic day.

The bailouts of recession, austerity, recession and social desertification are finally over,” Tsipras said in a televised address to the nation from the island of Ithaca.

“Our country regains its right to shape its own future,” he said from a hill overlooking a bay in the island where Odysseus returned after a 10-year voyage recounted by classical poet Homer.