Greece's three coalition partners agreed on a basic outline of a plan regarding €11.5 billion of spending cuts to be implemented over the next two years, but have pushed back final decisions on the belt-tightening measures, pending discussions with international creditors.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said talks on determining the cutbacks for the 2013 to 2014 period went well but specific policy decisions will be made "down the road". "We agreed on everything in a general outline", he said. "We did not discuss specifics but a basic framework."
An austerity plan for Greece was scheduled to have been approved by lawmakers by the end of June, according to commitments made in exchange for the country's second €173 billion bailout, but was delayed when elections in May and June threw the country into political uncertainty. The leader of the socialist Pasok party, Evangelos Venizelos, said the measures "will be finalised in the coming days after the first discussions we will have with the troika on these issues".
The coalition party leaders decided against the introduction of any additional measures for 2012, despite the country looking likely to miss this year's budget deficit reduction target and coming under pressure for some eurozone peers to take corrective steps.
Full article
© Wall Street Journal
Key
Hover over the blue highlighted
text to view the acronym meaning
Hover
over these icons for more information
Comments:
No Comments for this Article