Greece agrees on fresh austerity measures

August 3, 2012

Greece’s coalition government have agreed to take the fresh austerity measures needed to secure funding from the country’s international creditors.Greece is required to accept new spending cuts of 11.5 billion euros, or over 14 billion dollars, for 2013 and 2014 in return for bailouts from the European Union and other international bodies.
The leaders of the trio coalition parties discussed the matter on Wednesday.
The leaders of the second and third coalition parties, both leftists, demanded that the deadline for the cutbacks be extended by 2 years. They cited the country’s contracting economy and falling employment due to austerity measures already in place.
But conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras succeeded in persuading them to accept the additional measures. He insisted that fresh spending cuts are essential for the country to remain in the eurozone.The measures to be announced around the end of August are expected to include privatization of state-owned corporations and pension cuts, which will likely arouse strong public opposition.