Greece does not insist on debt restructuring (PA) maps

Athens, Greece - Minister of Finance of the Greece excluded any restructuring of the burden of the crushing debt of his country Wednesday but warned that further budget cuts are necessary to achieve the objectives of the EU in the years to come.

Greece avoids bankruptcy last year a program billion loan rescue of European ($160 billion) of its European partners and the Monetary Fund International. In return, the Socialist Government slashed pensions and civil servant salaries, while increasing taxes and the retirement age.

But many analysts believe the country will finally be forced to restructure its debt - which means facilitating the terms of its repayment of loans, at the expense of international creditors - regardless of whether if it implements all the reformsHe promised.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said this "is a position which has few supporters, analysts." It is a position with which the Government does not agree. ?

His comments came a day after the President of the European Union Van Rompuy excluded any restructuring of the debt of the country approximately euro340 billion ($492 billion) during a visit to Athens. However, he urged Greece to see through the unpopular reforms.

Papaconstantinou, speaking at a banking conference in the Greek capital, insisted the country's economy had been through the worst and that growth may return in the second half of this year.

"When you are in the depth of the recession, not necessarily see you the light." You think things will continue to be black forever, "he says. "But if you look at what happened in the eurozone over the past years, it will be seen that the recession was followed by recovery."

The last quarter was "the worst", the Minister said. "In the first quarter of 2011 will be better the second even better and the third or fourth quarter we will forward to positive (growth) rate."

Although he has done a few upcoming economic improvements, Papaconstantinou said more measures are needed to get the deficit below the limit in the eurozone of 3 percent of GDP--the euro17 billion at the end of this year expected, to emission billion at the end of 2015.

With the face of the country about euro8 billion increase payments of only interest during this period, the country should take measures amounting to euro23 billion to achieve these goals, Papaconstantinou said.

The Government is to present his tax plan mid-term in the coming days, said the Minister, adding that they did include a more general treatment and pension or radical rise of tax cuts.

The objectives can be achieved by a combination of limit State payroll costs, limiting deficits enterprise State, better targeting of social protection and combat tax fraud and avoidance of social security contributions, he explained.

"It can be done and how exactly this is done be stated in the mid-term plan," Papaconstantinou said, adding that the Parliament is to vote on the package in mid-May.

Taken far austerity measures have sparked a string of protests by the hand of work, and Wednesday, striking employees at the Office of general accounting of the State blocked the entrance to the Ministry of finance at the Centre of Athens. Public sector workers are to stage a demonstration at the Centre of Athens in the evening.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.