Greece To Increase 2011 Budget Deficit Target To 8.5% From 7.6%

By

Greek authorities will increase the budget deficit target for 2011 to 8.5 percent from 7.6 percent of gross domestic product, earlier agreed with international lenders, Greek TV channels quoted a governmental source as saying on Sunday amid talks that the move could prevent the country from obtaining the next tranche needed to save its economy.

Crisis-hit Greece is struggling to get in October the next 8 billion euro tranche out of a 110 billion euro bailout from the troika of international lenders, including the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund.

The international lenders left Greece in September, saying they could not provide in October the next tranche if Greece failed to meet the agreed budget deficit target, but returned earlier this week as Greece had announced new austerity measures, including large redundancies, wage and pension cuts.

Greece’s budget deficit has overshot its 2011 target of 7.6 percent in the first eight months of the year.

Greek cabinet of minister is discussing at Sunday’s extraordinary meeting the country’s budget for 2012 and possible further redundancies, the government said earlier on Sunday. Greek authorities are expected make redundant 23,000 people nearing the retirement age and another 7,000 due to merger of 150 state companies.

Ria Novosti

RIA Novosti was Russia's leading news agency in terms of multimedia technologies, website audience reach and quoting by the Russian media.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *