Greece Agrees to $30 Billion Deal
Greece Agrees to $30 Billion Deal – Greece has agreed a package of austerity measures under which it aims to cut its budget deficit by 30 billion euros over three years on top of measures already agreed, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said on Sunday.
Under the deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF), Greece plans to cut the deficit to 8.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, 7.6 percent in 2011 and 6.5 percent in 2012.
The deficit would not fall below the EU’s 3 percent of GDP limit until 2014. Debt was expected to rise to nearly 150 percent in 2013, before falling from 2014.
“We are all being called to make a choice,” Papaconstantinou told a news conference in Athens.
“The choice is between collapse or salvation. The choice is between fleshing out a very ambitious and difficult 3-year programme of fiscal consolidation, a programme of structural reforms … or the country reaching an absolute dead-end.”
He said the measures included a rise in value-added tax (VAT) to 23 percent from 21 percent, a 10 percent hike in fuel, alcohol and tobacco taxes and a further reduction in public sector salaries and pensions.
Tags: Athens, Austerity Measures, Budget Deficit, Collapse, European Union, Euros, Finance Minister, Fiscal Consolidation, Fuel Alcohol, Gdp, Greece, Gross Domestic Product, International Monetary Fund, International Monetary Fund Imf, News Conference, Pensions, Public Sector Salaries, Tobacco Taxes, Vat
Posted in Money, Politics
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