Financial Crisis in Greece

[The LION will ROAR]

Guy's did anyone get to see the documentry on Greece last week..
If not you can see it on this link

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/default.htm

Just click on the link Coming Acropolis
Very interesting indeed...
What are your thoughts..?

[fyrOM]

"Дејли телеграф": Папандреу игра покер со ЕУ

http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=CF02E8445227FF46AD4CD31895EB00A9

LONDON, April 21 - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou plays poker with the European Union to activate odlagajkji financial aid package for the country, which already approved the EU and IMF for restoration of the huge internal debt of Greece, the Daily Telegraph.
That, according to London-based newspaper, raises doubt about the true intentions of Brussels, the Greek prime minister, so I assumed that odolzhuvanjeto, Athens just trying to fight for better conditions for further progress in the negotiations. The Papandreou said that in the next few weeks will decide whether to activate the mechanism of financial assistance from abroad, insisting the decision would depend on whether the assessment is in the best interests of Greece.
Neopredelenata position of the Greek prime minister suggests the government in Athens, rather than accept the aid package approved, heavy 45 billion dollars, could be determined for the reprogramming of its debt, noted the Daily Telegraph.

Begin negotiations Greece - EU - IMF
BRUSSELS, April 21 (Reuters) - Negotiations of the European Commission and the IMF with Greece regarding the borrowing plan will begin today and will determine the measures that Greece will have to take by 2012, said a representative of the EU.
The objective of these negotiations is to provide fast way of paying the money to Greece if Athens requests. Such negotiations usually last two to three weeks, told a press conference, Commission spokesman Amado Altafaj.

[Makedonetz]

Greece will never learn as their entire "ideology" of thinking still is in the past heck they cant even get along one greek with another. They talk about the balkin as a powder keg well they are right Greece is ready to explode and we are waiting to light the fuse. Farmers protesting, corruption looks good one them hopefully the EU sees they are the sand bags weighing them down.

[Onur]

Some professional analysts says that Greece don't have enough economical power to pay his debts and giving more debt money to them will just make problems to go worse and delay the inevitable bankruptcy.

2012 will be so difficult for Greek people. We will see how it will turn out.

[Makedonetz]

Didnt papendreus want to work with the macedonians and forge a aggreement i remember hearing he was stoned afterwards by his own people who belive in Democracy?

[osiris]

greece forged its economic statistics to join the eu and i am betting the are many more skeletons rattling around, that the real state of greeces economic situation is still unknown.

its the fabled ancient greek legacy that has kept greece a part of the western world not their economic social and cultural reality.

[Bill77]

Never ending. It just gets worse.


Greek Debt Crisis gets worse as EU revises numbers

Thursday, 22 April 2010

Civil servants staged a 24-hour strike Thursday against austerity measures and expected job cuts by Greece's crisis-plagued government, and the EU's statistics agency said the country's budget was even worse than previously thought.

The strike disrupted public services, shut down schools and left state hospitals working with emergency staff. Protesters from a Communist-backed trade union blockaded Athens' main port of Piraeus, disrupting ferry services.




Eurostat, meanwhile raised Greece's budget deficit in 2009 to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product from its earlier prediction of 12.9 percent, while the ratio of government debt to GDP stood at 115.1 percent, the second highest in the European Union after Italy.
In comments that are sure to rattle markets, the statistics agency also expressed "a reservation on the quality of the data reported by Greece." It also said Greek's 2009 figures could be revised further, to the tune of 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points of GDP for the deficit and 5 to 7 percentage points of GDP for the debt.

Markets were shocked last fall when the government announced that the previous conservative Greek government had issued misleading financial data for years..................


It said the new figures showed the scale of Greece's financial troubles, which it blamed on mishandling by the previous, conservative government.

Greece is struggling to cope with a debt of euro300 billion ($406 billion) and needs to borrow about euro54 billion this year alone. It has a projected public debt of more than 120 percent of gross domestic product through 2011.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/13570/46/

[Onur]

I wonder Who will pay this debt of 500 billion dollars in Greece?

%15 percent of unemployed people or the remaining retired people with monthly pension?

[Makedonetz]

Greece better sell more olives if they want to survive.....i always laughed at those guys in the bazaars. In Solun my uncle and myself used to sit and watch these guys yell at each other their products are better than theirs...i forgot what my uncle used to call them

[Onur]

Greece better sell more olives if they want to survive.

I don't think they can pay a debt of 500 billion dollars even if they sell all the olives in the world !!!


I really started to believe that, sooner or later, they gonna go bankrupt.

[Makedonetz]

Hopefully the EU discards the trash that is piling up in greece.

[Makedonetz]

ATHENS, Greece - Hobbled by exorbitant borrowing costs, Greece triggered an emergency aid plan Friday to draw cash from the IMF and countries that use the euro , the first test of whether the EU is prepared to bail out one of its members.

The package has enough money to keep Greece from defaulting on its massive debts anytime soon. But Athens still faces years of painful cutbacks and questions about its long-term finances, raising worries that its troubles will affect other indebted EU members and further harm the euro currency.

The three-year plan agreed on in Brussels recently and hailed as a sign that Europe can cope with the crisis will provide Greece with loans: euro-zone members will contribute euro30 billion ($40 billion) at interest rates of about 5 percent, while the IMF will chip in about euro10 billion this year. Exact figures for the following years have not yet been made public.

European governments made the financial backstop available to fend off a Greek default, which would deal a serious blow to the euro currency, shake market confidence and inflict losses on banks that invested in Greek bonds. It also aims to keep Greece's troubles from spreading to other financially weak euro-zone governments, such as Portugal and Spain.

While the aid would stave off default for now, it raises more questions: Will other governments ask for a bailout, and will assuming the financial burdens of Greece mean shakier finances and higher borrowing costs for other the euro-zone countries?

The German public, in particular, has been critical of extending assistance to Greece, as Germany recently emerged from years of stagnant growth that saw painful cuts to people's own pensions and social security benefits. Germany will be the biggest contributor of loans.

Greece is under no illusions that the plan will resolve all the problems of a country that has a debt of euro300 billion and other serious fiscal issues. The nation needs to borrow about euro54 billion ($72 billion) this year alone. It's already covered about half that amount with bond and treasury bill issues, but has euro8.5 billion worth of 10-year bonds maturing on May 19.

But Athens hopes the plan, which will allow it to refinance its debt, gives it breathing space to push through tough reforms. It is already implementing a harsh austerity program that cuts civil servants' pay, freezes pensions and hikes taxes.

"Our partners will assist us, immediately and decisively, in order to give Greece the safe haven that will allow us to rebuild our ship with sturdy and reliable materials. As well as sending a strong message to the markets that the EU is not playing and is protecting our common interests and our common currency," Prime Minister George Papandreou said. "We are on a difficult course."

Papandreou , whose center-left government came to power in October and has blamed the previous administration for mismanaging the economy and fudging Greece's statistics , said the current market situation made it "a national and pressing necessity for us to formally ask our partners for the activation of the support mechanism."

Greece's prospects for economic growth are weak, and because as a euro member it no longer has its own currency to devalue , a painful but quick safety valve that can improve a troubled country's trade competitiveness.

Athens had faced ever-increasing borrowing costs, which reached nearly 9 percent for 10-year bonds on Thursday , about three times what EU heavyweight Germany has to pay.

The record highs came after the European Union's statistics agency revised the country's 2009 deficit figure to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product, from an already high 12.9 percent, and said it could be further revised by up to 0.5 percentage points. A downgrade of the country's sovereign rating by Moody's credit agency made things worse.

"The activation of the bailout funds was highly expected and it should result in an easing of the pressure on the Greek government," said IHS Global Insight senior economist Diego Iscaro.

"However, we are concerned that bond yields will still remain high," he said, noting that the exact details of the plan's implementation were still unclear, and that "markets will still be concerned about the long-term sustainability of Greece's public finances."

EU spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said that now Greece had asked for EU help, the finance ministers of the 16 euro nations will likely meet "in a matter of days." In Washington, IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the fund was "prepared to move expeditiously on this request."

Greek trade unions reacted with dismay and vowed to step up strike action.

"Social resistance and accelerated strike action form the course that can provide hope and certainty in our life," said Spyros Papaspyros, head of the umbrella civil servant union. His union, ADEDY, planned a protest against the IMF on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 people took part in a demonstration in central Athens Friday evening against the prospect of further austerity measures. Minor clashes broke out when some demonstrators threw stones at riot police, who responded with pepper spray. Officers detained about 10 people.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had resisted bailing Greece out, stressed that any assistance would be tied to "very strict conditions," including a savings plan drawn up in talks between Greece and the IMF and the approval of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF.

Germany will contribute the largest share, euro8.37 billion, because it holds 27.92 percent of the shares of the European Central Bank.

But Merkel defended the assistance, calling it necessary to ensure the stability of the euro zone.

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonto urged Germany to show its leadership on the Greek crisis, saying helping Greece is in the interest of the commong European good.

"If the house of your neighbor gets set on fire, even if it is a small house, and even if the fault is your neighbor's, it's not a good idea to pretend nothing is happening," he told RAI state television from Washington. It's better for you ... to give them a fire extinguisher because if not, the fire can spread to other houses," Tremonti told RAI state television from Washington.

German's coming to the aid of their gerkomani brothers. Hopefully the EU makes a decision soon, i bet there are other country's waiting to join. ,

[osiris]

i hope it implodes soon because as soon as greece is sorted excuse the pommieism spain portugal and italy will put their hand out too and then we will see how succesful and well managed these eu economies really are.

where would they be without germany

[fyrOM]

EU and IMF require Greece to lift the 13th and 14th salary
ATHENS, April 27 - Representatives of the IMF, the European Commission and European Central Bank, which negotiate in Athens for financial aid package to Greece, urged the government to repeal the 13th and 14th salary in the private sector and to reduce the minimum earnings, now at 780 euros, according to Greek Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos.
He confirmed that during the talks were set such conditions the EU and the IMF, but they made it clear that his ministry was against the abolition of the two salaries, because it could be disastrous for employees, market and insurance funds .

Value of the euro fell

BERLIN (AP) - The value of the euro fell poneznachitelno compared to the dollar, after activation of Greece requested financial assistance package worth more than $ 50 billion.
Yesterday, the euro stood at 1.3371 dollar, compared to the previous week - 1.3390 dollars.
Before activation of Greece requested assistance package, the value of the euro dropped to 1.3202 dollars, which is lowest since April 2009.
In early trading yesterday, the British pound rose to 1.5430 dollars from 1.5375 dollars while the dollar rose to 94.25 Japanese yen from 94.03 yen earlier.

[fyrOM]

I cannot understand these guys. Does anyone get a 13th and 14th pay.