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Greece waits for its financial medicine
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Greece waits for its financial medicine
AFP - Monday, December 14
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Having reassured his European partners, new Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, pictured on December 11, now has to set about plugging the gaping hole in his country's finances without alienating the people who elected him.
ATHENS (AFP) - – Having reassured his European partners, new Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou now has to set about plugging the gaping hole in his country's finances without alienating the people who elected him.
But given the balance sheet facing his government and the sniping from his political rivals, that will be a difficult trick to pull off.
Papandreou will on Monday set out his proposals to tackle the country's gaping 300-billion-euro (442-billion-dollar) debt, one reason why Fitch Ratings hit the country with a credit downgrade that shook the markets worldwide.
With fears over the stability of the eurozone, Papandreou rushed to Brussels last week to reassure his European partners that Greece was "not about to default on its debts".
That performance appears to have bought him some time.
But by January, he will have to come up with the details of what he has pledged will be a tough economic rescue plan over three years.
Greece's public deficit is still expected to surge to 12.7 percent of output this year -- well beyond the 3.0 percent limit imposed by the eurozone -- which amounts to 113 percent of gross domestic product.
Economy Minister Louka Katseli meanwhile called for immediate reforms to convince the markets of Greece's willingness to sort out its finances, saying in remarks published Sunday there was no time to waste.
"It is now that we must convince the markets of our determination to take the necessary measures to be able to clean up the budget, relaunch the economy and restructure our production," she said in the To Vima newspaper.
Although Papandreou and Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou have a mountain to climb, both have suggested that the problem is at least in part about perception.
"A number of our problems stem less from the absolute figures than the fact that nobody believes us any more because our statistics are false," the minister told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine in an interview due out Monday.
That was why they would be giving the state statistical agencies their independence, Papaconstantinou added.
In a similar vein, Papandreou said on Friday: "Our biggest deficit is our credibility deficit."
He has ruled out going to the International Monetary Fund for aid, talking instead of a wage freeze for the highest-paid civil servants and of a halt to taking on new staff.
But he vowed that he would be going after the tax evaders -- not the workers.
Ahead of a meeting Tuesday with the leaders of all the political parties, Papandreou is trying to reassure the voters at home.
But the conservatives, whom he beat in October's election, have already attacked the government for its lack of a coherent strategy.
On the left meanwhile, the communists and radicals have accused the government of preparing "anti-popular" measures at the "dictate of Brussels".
As Papandreou attempts to calm the waters at home, Papaconstantinou will visit his counterparts in Britain, France and Germany in a bid to convince them that the new socialist government can handle the crisis.
A crucial part of his tour will be a meeting Wednesday in London with institutional investors.
Saturday's papers were unconvinced.
"The Papandreou method: sedatives inside and out," said the left-wing Eleftherotypia. The liberal Kathimerini said Brussels wanted more rigour.
"Mr Papandreou needs to be clear and announce concrete measures," said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of research at IOBE, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, a think tank funded by the Greek employers.
"There will be resistance, but if the government succeeds in convincing people that these measure are going to bring more justice, people will follow, a lot are ready to even now," he added.
Confronted with a delicate balancing act, the government had to manage its 2010 budget, which is forecast to register a 9.1 deficit, economist George Pagoulatos said.
"But I wonder if the objective should not be more ambitious," he added.
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