The Greek Finance Ministry revealed the next steps it plans to take in order to proceed with further easing of the capital controls that have been imposed since end of June 2015. According to the finance ministry road map the next steps will include: increase of withdrawal limit to 500 …
Read More »
Creditors’ deal with Greece: Crash the poor, break the social vulnerable and chronic-ill, few structural reforms
Greece will lower tax-free threshold to 5,681 euros annual income. The European Union sets the poverty line at 6,000 euro. This is the biggest scandal in the package of additional austerity measures Greece and creditors agreed upon in the early morning hours of Thursday.The second scandal is an additional cut …
Read More »
IMF demands €450mn austerity cuts in unemployment, poverty allowances for 2018
The austerity nightmare has no end. Despite the fact that the International Monetary Fund has only an adviser role in the third bailout program, it keeps pushing and pushing for cuts and more cuts without end. It wants cuts in unemployment allowance – currently at 360 euro. Cuts in poverty …
Read More »
Juncker says further pension cuts ‘bad advice”, calls on Eurozone to draw up debt relief measures for Greece
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged euro zone countries to draw up more debt relief measures for Greece next month. He said that Athens needed help after making “huge progress” in its economic reforms. “Further pension cuts is a bad advice,” Juncker said. In an interview to Greek economic news …
Read More »
Tsipras says additional measures won’t be implemented if no debt relief deal
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that the additional austerity measures 2019-2020 will not be implemented if there is no measures for debt relief. In an interview to private ANT1 TV on Tuesday evening, the Prime Minister clarified that the government will legislate for the additional pension cuts and higher …
Read More »
Sudden death for widows’ pensions: New criteria and cuts to push thousands into poverty
The implementation of the pension reform of 2016, leads to sudden death of incomes for survived widows and pushes a large portion of population to poverty. Widows’ pensions will by cut down to 50 percent of the deceased’s pension, new age criteria go into effect this month. According to so-called …
Read More »
ELSTAT: Greece’s primary surplus reaches 3.9% of GDP in 2016
Greece improved its public finances last year, achieving a general government primary surplus of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product compared to a 5.9 percent of GDP deficit in 2015, the country’s statistics agency ELSTAT said on Friday. “The surplus of General Government for 2016, in accordance with ESA 2010, …
Read More »
Greeks paid €7bn more in taxes in 2016, as middle-classes vanish and poverty increases
Two out of ten Greeks paid 80% of the total income taxes last year. At the same time poverty increases: more than 340,000 households declared zero income for the tax year 2015. Data released on Thursday by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) shows the stifling tax burden and …
Read More »
Only Greece worse off than Britain, say UK’s unions
Only Greece has suffered more from austerity that Britain, trade unions charged yesterday as rising inflation and stagnant wages threaten another sharp fall in living standards. Inflation at 2.3 per cent is higher than wage growth of 2.2 per cent — meaning that people’s pay is worth less in real …
Read More »
Inflation: Greek consumer prices rise 1.7% in March due to hikes in food, fuel, transport
Greece’s inflation rate rose to 1.7 percent in March, Greek Statistics Authority ELSTAT said on Monday. The rise is due to the mass price increases in food, alcoholic drinks, tobacco, telecommunications, heating oil and transport due to special fee in fuel. In February inflation rose to 1.3% and in January …
Read More »
Eurogroup deal: Measures €3.6bn in pension cuts, tax-free threshold (2% GDP) in 2019-2020
Creditors representatives will return to Greece as early as possible to finalize the second review of the Greek bailout program. At a press conference after the Eurogroup meeting, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that Greece and creditors have reached a ‘great agreement’ in Malta. “We agreed that measures 1% of the GDP …
Read More »
What is the Greek Problem? Politics destroying Economy?.
Below is an article I found about the Greek Problem. Picked it up from The Market Mogul.com, a website about finances. Enjoy! The Greek problem: Politics destroying Economy… Lack of action leads to loss. This loss is even greater when it takes place at a national level. The absence of …
Read More »
How Brexit will affect Greek economy struggling to survive in recession environment?
Brexit negotiations between UK and the European Union are still to start. Whatever the outcome one thing remains sure: the impact on Greek economy will be big both in bilateral and EU level, especially in trade and tourism. And this at times when Greek business struggle to survive in an …
Read More »
IMF Thomsen: Greece will need at least 20 years to return to pre-crisis levels
Greeece will need at least twenty years to have its GDP return to pre-crisis levels. This message full of … spring optimism was transmitted by Poul Thomsen, in charge of the European program of the International Monetary Fund. Speaking at a conference in the University of Oxford, Poul Thomsen said …
Read More »
Greece needs contributions by 10 workers to pay just one pension
We saw it coming when wages in Greece started to plummet. Now the data obtained by social security experts confirm it: A lot of people need to work in order to pay one single pension. It takes the contributions of ten workers to pay one single pension. Before the crisis …
Read More »
Greek Govt blames “IMF and two European Countries” for review delays
Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis directly blamed the International Monetary Fund and two European countries for the delays of the second review of the Greek program. Speaking to newspaper Ethnos tis Kyriakis, Dragasakis said that the second review could have concluded by December 5th, if it wasn;t for the IMF …
Read More »
How powerful is Greece?
The Week: America is turning Puerto Rico into Greece
I can’t help but remember German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble every time I read somewhere the word “Puerto Rico.” In 2015, Schaeuble offered US-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew swap burdens of Puerto Rico with those of Greece. Would the swap have been a good deal for Germany and the Eurozone? Hardly. …
Read More »
Greece’s economy in recession: Growth in 2016 was 0.0%, says ELSTAT
Greece’s debt-ridden economy stagnated in 2016, the national statistics agency ELSTAT said in a first estimate on Wednesday, two days after quarterly data pointed to a small contraction. “GDP in volume terms recorded 0.0% annual rate of change in 2016,” ELSTAt said, adding that the figure was derived from non-seasonally …
Read More »