Tag Archives: government

Greek government is under immense pressure as money has run out, and the expected 2-billion-euro bailout tranche has not arrived yet. The Eurozone technocrats, the members of the Euro Working Group are supposed to make their first review of the implementation of the bailout programm and decide today whether Greece …

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You should consider yourself literally blessed that you do not understand Greek. That you can easily resist temptation to push  ON on remote control and zap through television channels or radio programs to watch or listen the current news and the accompanying comments or analyses. Or having to read the …

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Greece will write off debts up to 20,000 euro to tax office, insurance funds but also consumer loans and credit cards to the banks. The measure targets the debt relief of allegedly some 35,000 people and the criteria are very strict: absolute poverty, not possession of property, no income at …

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We normally call it a “horse trading”. But Greece makes the usual exception to the rule and invents a new term: The Beef Trading. In the hard and shrewd bargaining  with creditors, the Greek government achieved to lower the Value Added Tax of 23% to beef and beef products and …

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Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras got rid of the Left Platform Ministers in his cabinet and had a government reshuffle Friday afternoon.

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After Greek government sent its Proposals to Creditors, now ball is in the court of  Eurozone. Some ‘positive’ signals already came from France and Malta in the sense of “Greek proposals could be basis for negotiations.” And I write this post, there have been no other comments by the rest …

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Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, has said that Greece elected “a bunch of lunatics”. In an outburst of solidarity with EU taxpayers, O’Leary said “You can’t be bloody retiring, sitting in a cafe drinking coffee and expecting the Germans or the Irish or the Portuguese to pay for you.” …

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In a short televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras explained to voters that the analysis of the International Monetary Fund for debt relief in not included in Creditors’ proposal the main question of Sunday’s referendum. And that the government was vindicated by the IMF report on the …

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Crucial hours in an unstable environment. The Greek government insists that negotiations continue on political level only and that therefore it was logical that the International Monetary Fund left the negotiations on Thursday. In a non-paper distributed to the media on Friday, the Greek government stresses that “negotiations on technical …

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Greek government sent a 47-page long draft plan to the creditors on Monday. In the lost list of austerity reforms the government has among others: privatizations and early retirement,  debt restructuring and Primary Surplus 2015-2018, tax revenues, minimum wage and collective bargain. The signals from the country’s creditors were rather …

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The Greek government has reportedly sent a circular to all its embassies and consulates abroad calling them to send back to Athens any cash reserves that they have not used as well as revenues from consular operations. The money should be sent directly to tax offices. The -frankly- surprise move …

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There is certainly something wrong with the bailout and strict austerity program imposed by the creditors on Greece, so far. Government spending has been constantly decreasing but the debt/GDP ratio remains high. In fact it is higher than before the bailout in 2010… “Latest Greek data show government spending -21% …

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Greek lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of setting up a committee to examine the circumstances under which Greece agreed to bailouts totaling 240 billion euros with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The proposal was approved with 156 of the 250 lawmakers present voting in favor, 72 …

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Greece “defaults” each and every month since the new coalition government came into power, should we believe the Cassandras of various nationalities and interests. The first default scenario “saw” a default by end February, the second by end of March. Bogeyman’s words “Grexit” and “Grexident” started to whirl around. Again. …

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Left-wing SYRIZA tabling Tuesday evening a proposal for the establishment of a Parliament committee assigned to investigate the laon agreements (Memorandum of Undestanding) between previoous Greek governments and the country’s lenders IMF, EU and ECB. The inquiry will investigate the time periods October 2009 -May 2010 (Papandreou gov’t, 1. loan …

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While Greece was sending its Reforms List to the creditors, a non-paper issued by the Prime Minister’s office created confusion as it looked as if Athens was threatening the creditors with stop serving the debt unless the bailout disbursement would be released.” An additional declaration made clear that “the threat” …

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Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis declared absolute negative towards privatizations in Greece’s energy sector. “There is not going to be any privatization in DEH [Public Power Company] in DEPA [natural gas distribution operator ] or ELPE [Petroleum Company]. I repeat what I have said until today,” Lafazanis told daily TA NEA. …

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I am not sure whether German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble analyzed correctly the elections results in Hamburg on Sunday, with his Christian Democratic Party (CDU) to have plunged to just 16%. I am not sure whether he thought, the CDU lost due to German conservative taxpayers getting angry in case …

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Greek coalition government SYRIZA-Independent Greeks will announce its policy programme in Parliament on Sunday, February 8th, will the vote of confidence will take place two days later, Tuesday, February 10th around midnight. The program announcement will take place one day later than originally scheduled, most likely due to the meetings …

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Just hours before the meeting between Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis with his counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin, and the German side most probably thought to put the agenda of Thursday talks. In a document leaked to the press, Berlin made its positions towards Greece very clear and demands from …

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