Greece’s economy minister, Giorgos Stathakis, has told the BBC that he believes Athens’ new proposals have broken the deadlock. And he also reckons that European leaders will reflect that in their communique tonight. Robert Peston, the Beeb’s economics editor, has the story: He said he expects eurozone government heads to issue a communique later today that will say there is now a basis for a formal agreement with Athens to complete the current bailout programme and release €7.2bn of vital funds. Mr Stathakis conceded that technical work would need to be done in the coming days to formalise the agreement. But he was hopeful that Greece would be able to make its €1.5bn payment to the IMF on its due date of June 30 – and therefore avoid a devastating default.

He detailed Greece’s new money-raising proposals. These include:

A new tax on businesses

A new tax on the wealthy,

Some increases in the VAT rate on selected items.

                                                                                                       (COURTESY: THE GUARDIAN.)