Τετάρτη 1 Αυγούστου 2012

Greeks deliver fresh austerity measures




Wednesday 01 August 2012

Greeks deliver fresh austerity measures

The Greek government has presented a new €11.5bn (£9bn) austerity package to its lenders as doubts grow over the country’s future in the eurozone.

People shout during a huge anti-austerity demonstration in Athens' Syntagma (Constitution) square February 12, 2012.
People shout during an anti-austerity demonstration in Athens in February Photo: Reuters
7:00AM BST 27 Jul 2012
Comments40 Comments
Ahead of talks between Athens and the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund “troika”, Citibank warned it expected Greece to leave the single currency within nine months.
“We now believe the probability that Greece will leave [the euro] in the next 12 to 18 months is about 90pc and the most likely date is in the next two to three quarters,” said Willem Buiter, Citibank’s chief economist.
New ECB data showed that deposits at Greek banks hit their lowest level in six years last month as investors withdrew funds on fears the country will exit the eurozone.
The troika negotiations will continue into September and will determine if Greece gets the next €31.5bn instalment of bail-out loans, without which it will be forced to default.
The austerity package, expected to come from pension, healthcare and benefit cuts, has been structured by the Greek government to help it negotiate for more time to repay the rescue package in order to cope with a deep recession.
But EU officials estimate Greece will need at least an extra €20bn to meet its new bail-out targets at a time when opposition is growing to giving the country any more financial aid. Greece has so far avoided publicly requesting more cash amid hostility from creditors who accuse a series of Athens governments of delaying promised reforms.
Markus Soeder, the finance minister of Germany’s Bavaria region, called for Greece to be kicked out of the euro “to set an example” if it sought to delay austerity measures.
Evangelos Venizelos, the Socialist party leader and a junior coalition partner in the Greek government, said letting Greece fall out of the euro currency union would spell “suicide for the eurozone”.
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40 comments

Showing 1-25 of 40 comments

 
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  • Commenter's avatar
    TediUSA
    "Greece deliver more austerity measures"
    You mean probably "Greece deliver more promises of austerity measures?"
    Because this is the only thing Greece delivered for the last 3 years whilst receiving international bailouts.
    Promises for  Real Cash-not bad, not bad.
    On that note,I promise to anybody willing to buy it to sell them  the Brooklyn Bridge for few bucks........
  • Commenter's avatar
    *Greeks deliver fresh austerity measures*
    More fictional than a Harry Potter story.
  • Commenter's avatar
    "Evangelos Venizelos, the Socialist party leader and a junior coalition partner in the Greek government, said letting Greece fall out of the euro currency union would spell “suicide for the eurozone"
    Its suicide for the greeks but for irish and portuguese (who are currently implementing the necessary reforms) is an homicide.
  • Commenter's avatar
    socius2
    Unless there are perspectives that things are getting better for the Greek people in the years to come, the Greek people will not support the austerity steps taken.  Without the peoples support the measures will not work and are a waste of time.
  • Commenter's avatar
    Its absolutely essential to get support from the public to implement the reforms.
    Maybe its a cultural problem (tax evasion, riots, major protest and strikes) associated with lack of communication and explanation from politicians who are generally perceived as corrupts, who makes the odds of success even lower.
  • Commenter's avatar
    Here you go, I have posted this before. It's copied from one of Thursday's Greek newspapers and just shows that no bugger hardly is paying tax. So just send us your money Mrs. Merkel.
    Extremely high rates of tax evasion were uncovered
    by the financial crimes squad SDOE during inspections carried out on islands
    and other summer resorts, the finance ministry revealed on Thursday.
    Figures released by the ministry, concerning
    inspections carried out from July 6-23, revealed that six out of every 10
    businesses inspected were guilty of evading taxes, with 805 tax violations
    discovered in a total of 1,410 inspections of shops and other businesses (57
    per cent).
    Tax evasion rates as high as 100 per cent were
    recorded in resorts on the islands of Zakynthos and Lefkada, in Rethymno on
    Crete and in Kastoria. Other areas on Crete also recorded very high rates of
    tax evasion, reaching 87 percent in Hania and 78 percent in Iraklio, followed
    by Santorini (83%), Corfu (75%), Naxos (73%) and Mykonos (68.5%).
  • Commenter's avatar
    TediUSA
    100% tax evasion is not an extremely high rate tax evasion-it is an absolute  and total tax evasion.
    The solution?
    No problem-just lend them more of our cash to evade on.
  • Commenter's avatar
    Completely false headline:”Greeks deliver fresh austerity measures
    The Greek government has presented a new €11.5bn (£9bn) austerity package to its lenders “
    False,because of the simple fact, that an official austerity programme decided by the Greek government never existed. Only yesterday it was again refused: “But the savings -- expected from everything including cuts to welfare benefits, pensions and rents on ministry buildings -- failed to win the blessing of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's allies, the Socialists and the small Democratic Left party.” Since 2009 the Greeks offered only intentions and promises to meet next week, next month next autumn, next elections to hammer the austerity programme.
  • Commenter's avatar
    A agree with you, all promises and no follow up actions.
    However "ekathimerini" said that the coalition partners accepted the programme yesterday, and - as you say - they will meet again on Monday
    ;-)
  • Commenter's avatar
    The Greek bank run is expected to end in July according to a report of a very popular Greek financial news portal. About 10 billion has been reinstated according to the news item! If we are going to believe the report, July will be a record month for money returning to Greek banks since about 10 billion has been reinstated!
  • Commenter's avatar
    LegalTerms
    It's a Greece tragedy that only benefits the Germans to perpetuate it. Sadistic sods.
    The low value Euro is good for German exports.Argentina got away with defaulting.I say to all Greece , cut and run and get your democracy and freedom back.
  • Commenter's avatar
    Have read about Argentine's state of economy recently? Not a prime example how to get out of trouble.
  • Commenter's avatar
    Sigh..Recommend not working again...
  • Commenter's avatar
    Surely it's blindingly obvious to anyone with an IQ in double figures that the heavily indebted countries on the EZ will NEVER be able to pay off their debts.......so.......FFS what is the point of "lending" them any more!
  • Commenter's avatar
    Dave_from_the_black_country
    Absolute madness. It is like cutting off your own limbs to feed yourself in the hope that new ones will grow back and you can repeat the cycle. 
    At what point will it become clear that either the cuts are not really happening, and therefore the debt trajectory will not improve, and so keep on announcing new ones is pointless. Or, if the cuts are taking place, then no matter how long this goes on there can never be enough cuts to save the situation. 
  • Commenter's avatar
    Greece needs to reform its labour and business laws, privatise its holdings, sell its properties and then the country will grow so fast paying back its debt will be a breeze.
  • Commenter's avatar
    TediUSA
    They need to cut their state expenditures-yes,salaries and pensions to by 50% and they will pay off their debt in less than  10 years-only they don't want to.
  • Commenter's avatar
     to goldenboy
    Wow! you make it sound so easy. What are you smoking this morning?
  • Commenter's avatar
    sein_schatten
    What I find quite stunning, is that the Greek authorities always and only focus on the cutting aspects of the renovation.

    Yes, cutting expenses and increasing taxes does PART of the trick. But way more important is the structural changes of the organziation plus mental changes of the societys attitude.

    And every Greek government has carefully avoided these structural reforms like the devil the  holy water. But without those structural changes, all of the rest in the long run simply solves not much at all.

    I'm wondering, wether they are doing this, because structural reforms would hit the upper ten thousands (their kin so to say) whilst cutting hits the average guys. And so the fat cats, can hide behind the suffering of the common man?

    The Greeks should turn to their own upper classes for help, and not to the average taxpayer of other countries. There seems to be plenty of things to reap, within the Greek society.
  • Commenter's avatar
    A perfect solution but that risks accepting that all socialist principles are wrong, despite the fact that such changes would benefit the working man the most and hard the upper echelons. 
    Politicians can't upset their paymasters - the upper echelons and the unions, so they will continue to make everyone else's lives a misery.
  • Commenter's avatar
    I´m deeply impressed by the extent of announced austerity-measures in Greece. They overdo the last announcements by far and will - in every case - lead to severe social protests against this announcements.

  • Commenter's avatar
    We don't seem to have heard much about protests on the streets for quite some time. I wonder if they have exhausted themselves and are quietly resigned to their fate? Or have we had a Brussels orchestrated news blackout? Most puzzling.
  • Commenter's avatar
    bill40
    mahavati,
    there has been, and will continue to be so, many demonstrations often violent that have been scandlously unreported in the mainstrewam media.
  • Commenter's avatar
     Probably since energy levels are at an all time low thanks to starvation.....
  • Commenter's avatar
    That's one way of cutting the unemployment numbers.

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Αναρτήθηκε από στις 3:30 μ.μ.