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Stournaras Says Greece Will Make It

Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournas is looking on the bright side and thinks the economy can rebound

With pessimism and gloom settling over Greece with another pending $14.6 billion in government spending cuts and more austerity measures looming, Finance Minister Yiannis Stournas said he believes that the country will survive and its economy come back.
Speaking to the British newspaper The Guardian, he said indications that Greece would get a two-year extension from international lenders to reduce its deficit and impose more pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and make additional reforms was a sign that Greece is coming back, if slowly.
“I am more optimistic … we have turned the corner. There is more trust between us and our partners but we still have a long way to go,” Stournaras told the Guardian. “We have to have cleared up everything in the next two weeks so that everything can be put on the table at the (next) Eurogroup meeting on 8 October. If we can’t clear everything there can be no agreement,” he said referring to the next installment of bailout funding, worth 31.5 billion euros, ($38.8 billion) which Athens has been attempting to clinch since July.
Greece is surviving on a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) but needs the last installment to keep paying workers and pensioners. A second bailout, of $173 billion, is on hold until the government meets additional demands.
Stournaras’s comments came after an informal summit of finance minsters of the 17 countries in the Eurozone that use the euro, where IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said lenders may agree to some sort of extension for Greece. She was backed up by Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter, a fierce critic of Greece, who said an extension would help. Stournaras told the Guardian, however, that the government remains in a race against time to agree on the details of the new austerity package with the Troika and ensure the next installment of funding.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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