November unemployment among those under 24 was 48 percent, up from 35.6 percent in the year-earlier month. The highest regional rate was 23.8 percent in Macedonia-Thrace, in northern Greece. Unemployment in the Attica region, which includes Athens, was 21.1 percent, up from 13.9 percent a year earlier.
Greece’s consumer price index was 2.3 percent higher in January than a year earlier, compared with 2.2 percent in December, the statistical authority said in a separate statement.
(source: ELSTAT, Bloomberg)

The statement comes just hours after Greece’s government–and the three political parties making up the governing coalition–held all-night talks with a visiting troika of European and International Monetary Fund officials over the new austerity measures.
The strike comes just days after a separate 24-hour strike called by the two unions on Tuesday.
(source: Dow Jones)

“There are issues outstanding that must be resolved by the time the eurogroup meets,” Venizelos told reporters in Athens today after a meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and European Union and International Monetary Fund officials that ended just before 6 a.m. “As the prime minister said, there is agreement on all the issues bar one.”

The meeting with the so-called troika of lenders, representing the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, took place after leaders of the three parties supporting the government met Papademos and failed to resolve a dispute over pension cuts.

The latest hitch comes as the sides battle to complete a package that’s been on the table since July. Greece faces a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20 and is struggling to secure financing to avert a collapse of the economy that could spark a new round of contagion in the euro area.

Papademos and the leaders of the three parties supporting the government “agreed on all the points of the program with the exception of one which requires further elaboration and discussion” with the lenders, according to an e-mailed statement from the premier’s office in Athens. “This discussion will occur immediately so that it can be completed in light of the meeting of euro area finance ministers” today.

European and International Monetary Fund officials who met with Papademos said the government has 15 days to identify cuts worth 300 million euros, said a Greek government official who declined to be named and spoke to reporters in Athens after the meeting.

“There is only one issue, that of pensions, to be resolved,” Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy party, the country’s second-biggest party, told reporters in comments televised live on state-run NET TV. “The talks will continue.”

A separate government official, who also declined to be identified, said Samaras, Pasok party leader George Papandreou and George Karatzaferis of the Laos party all submitted alternative proposals to avoid pension cuts.

The leaders have effectively agreed on all the issues except for that of cuts to pensions, Panos Beglitis, a spokesman for the Pasok socialist party, told reporters after the meeting. He said his party was opposed to cuts in main pensions and that talks revolved around finding alternatives to make up for a 300- million euro shortfall.

Papademos was in phone contact with the three political party leaders backing his government during the consultations with the troika, said a third government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. No new meeting of the leaders is planned for today, he said.

Venizelos said he was flying to Brussels to attend the meeting of finance ministers. He said he hoped they would take a “positive decision” on a new loan package.
(source: NET, Bloomberg)

A shoe shine man sits in front of a closed shop in central Athens, one of more than 111,000 that are out of business

ATHENS – Frustratingly slow talks among Greece’s leaders on whether to accept tough measures to keep international aid coming – which could push Greece into a Depression – or reject them – which could force an already-bankrupt country to default and jeopardize world markets – may already be a classic case of too little, too late to save the country that saved Western Civilization but now threatens to rattle its economies.

As interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former Vice-President of the European Central Bank, was shuttling between officials of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank Troika putting up $152 billion in rescue loans and offering $169 billion more with conditions of continued austerity, and his shaky coalition government, signs were everywhere that perhaps nothing can save Greece now. Even Eurozone officials have said they fear Greece is a “bottomless pit” and that they are tired of continued failed promises to implement reforms, such as privatization, to raise revenue and at least try to become self-sufficient.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said even a 70 percent write-down in the country’s debt being negotiated as part of the second bailout will not be enough to stabilize the economy, whose deficit is a probably insurmountable 169 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP,) a black hole from which no country’s economy has ever recovered. Even if Greece gets the $170 billion, it will mostly go to international lenders and banks and Greek banks, and do little to aid Greeks suffering from 19.2 percent unemployment after 111,000 businesses closed last year, as deep pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions have left many Greeks near-destitute and others too scared to spend. The anxiety is palpable.

A Nielsen survey released Feb. 8 showed consumer confidence has nearly evaporated, with 33 percent of Greeks saying they are almost out of money even as the government has doubled income and property taxes, raised the Value Added Tax to 23 percent and is even taxing the poor, while making a late charge to try to recover some $40 billion in revenues lost to tax evasion. Consumer confidence fell 10 percent from October-December to a record low. Some 90 percent believe the country will not come out of recession and 93 percent have changed their spending habits, drastically cutting spending on food, clothes, eating out, traveling and entertainment. Greek movie theaters are trying to lure people with reduced fares and two-for-one tickets but Greeks are staying home.

Scores of shelters operated mostly by the Greek Orthodox Church serve more than 30,000 meals a day and long lines queue for the free soup and bread. With wages for public sector workers cut 30 percent or more and the government planning to accept Troika demands to cut the minimum wage more than 20 percent and let private sector bosses set worker salaries, buying power will fall even further, and faster. While the austerity has worsened the economy, the Troika is demanding more of it, although a growing number of economists said the austerity measures have created a “death spiral” from which Greece can’t recover as it has a service-oriented economy with little productivity, and as a member of the Eurozone of countries using the euro cannot devalue its currency.

University of Athens Economics Professor Yiannis Varoufakis told NBC that it’s even worse than it seems. “This is Greece’s Great Depression. If you look at the statistics it is indeed a deeper slump than what Greece went through in the 1930’s,” he said. While most Greeks fear a default that could force the country to bring back the ancient drachma and cause economic catastrophe, Varoufakis recommended it. “This bailout is certainly not the answer for anyone, for Greece, for the Eurozone, for the world,” he told NBC. “Greece should default instantly, immediately, without any talk of leaving the euro,” he said.

Two years of protests, riots and strikes by workers have done nothing to change the government’s mind even though Greek and European officials said the workforce has to share the blame for a system in which there are hundreds of thousands of unneeded workers hired as political favors by political parties in return for votes, a patronage system that has killed Greece.

The numbers are numbing:

• Some 500,000 Greeks have no money at all, their unemployment benefits having expired
• Nearly 500,000 people have fled Greece looking for a better life in other countries
• Unemployment for those under 25 is nearing 50 percent
• Gasoline has hit nearly $10 a gallon
• Hospital admissions are up 25 percent, but hospital budgets have been cut 40 percent
• Suicide rates are up 40 percent, the fastest increase in Europe
• The rate of increase in homelessness is the fastest in Europe and one Non-Governmental Organization estimates there are as many as 15,000 people living on the streets, in cardboard boxes and under bridges and sleeping on park benches, scenes from the Great Depression
• Violent crimes, including murder, have doubled and Greeks are growing increasingly anxious about robberies and break-ins
• With far fewer workers, there’s a lot less money going into the pension system which could see a $3 billion drop in contributions needed to pay the elderly, who could see their auxiliary pensions cut by 35 percent
• Some one million Greeks in a country of 11 million say they can’t pay a second 100 percent increase in property taxes being put into electric bills and could have their power turned off – which would decimate revenues for the national power company
• With survival the first priority, Greece is cutting or eliminating funding for those services deemed non-essential, such as the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, which cultivates the Greek culture and language. All its board members have resigned
• The Church of Greece, which is providing a critical lifeline for the homeless and needy, has pulled the plug on one of its radio stations, saying it can’t afford to broadcast anymore, and clerics have agreed to have their state-paid salaries cut again

“You cannot speak of human values, unless you speak of volunteering”, noted Helene Glykatzi – Arhweiler among other things, elaborating on the meaning of solidarity, and the importance of role models. “At this point, if the Greek, European and global society are suffering from one thing, it is the lack of exemplary figures. And as Voltaire wrote, exemplary people are those working for the best of humanity”, she added.

The speaker also posed the question on whether there is a moral universal value, subsequently responding “Whoever speaks of a universal value, speaks of a lie, as is whoever speaks of humanity, because you cannot speak of a unity, being the same from one end of the world to the other. The only real existing universal value, is of course humanity. Humanity, meaning solidarity and care for the fellow human, is the manifestation of every virtue. And the only definition of this universal value is to consume without depriving others, therefore, all the cultural, educational and scientific goods, Democracy, sharing with others, co-existence, are universal, and not material goods”.

In conclusion, the speaker noted that the five things we should teach youth in order to “stand up” and prevent them from “kneeling” in their life is to master their native language, so as to know “their history, the roots and magnificence of those that preceded”, to become proficient in a foreign language, because “only then they will be able to respect their fellow human, to learn the code of technology, in order to become integrated people in today’s society, to learn the code of arts, that allows the elevation of your soul”, and lastly, “to learn to respect their own body” and treat it like their home.

Mrs. Glykatzi – Arhweiler was introduced by the President of Eugenides Foundation, Leonidas Demetriadis – Eugenides, and the President of AGALIAZO, Olympia Chaldaiou – Bitrou.

(Source: ANA- MPA)

Working in collaboration with the National Pharmaceuticals Organisation and the Panhellenic Pharmacists Association, the health ministry intends to put up 12,000 special bins at pharmacies throughout the country in March, where people can deposit medicines they no longer need.

The quantities of drugs that are collected will then be taken to the Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Technology, which will undertake to send them to specialised disposal centres abroad where they will be neutralised and burned. The ministry’s goal is to create a similar unit for destroying expired pharmaceuticals in Greece.
(source: ana-mpa, ANSA)

Experts will additionally address effective investment strategies and risk management in today’s shipping industry.

Carbon Positive CEO, Helena Athoussaki, will be speaking on the subject of ‘Energy efficiency: a competitive and investment driver’ during the afternoon.

(Source:http://www.carbonpositive.net)

Germany’s chancellor also stressed that reforming Greece outside the eurozone was not an option.

“I will not participate in pushing Greece out of the eurozone,” she said. A eurozone exit was “not an issue”.

Angela Merkel stated after the postponement of the Greek leaders’ austerity meeting: “We don’t want to worsen the life of Greeks. We only wish that Greece will pull through on its own hands”.

According to sources, Merkel said that the Eurogroup Meeting will be completed by Thursday night. Until then troika’s report is scheduled to be completed, too.

Nearly two years into Greece’s bailout, so many promises have been broken that international lenders have largely lost faith in the country’s will to reform itself and are torn between imposing stricter outside control and cutting Athens loose.

European Union partners and International Monetary Fund officials negotiating a second financial rescue for the euro zone’s most indebted state say they are tired of asking for the same measures to be agreed or implemented, again and again.

In a conference call on Saturday, euro area finance ministers vented exasperation at Greece’s failure to enact labor market and structural reforms to overhaul the economy.

Enough is Enough

“Enough is enough,” was the way one European official involved in the call described the message conveyed to Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos. “There is a great sense of frustration that they are dragging their feet.

Greece blames a deeper-than-expected recession, fuelled by the austerity required by its lenders, for its fiscal slippages. It has reduced its public deficit from over 15 percent of GDP in 2009 to 9-9.4 percent last year but the goal of getting below 3 percent by 2014 looks remote.

The country has just entered a fifth consecutive year of recession, making it harder to bring the debt and deficit ratios down. EU/IMF inspectors say failure to open up the economy and cut down a bloated public sector are largely to blame.

We Don’t Trust You With Your Money

In a sign of deepening mistrust, France and Germany called on Monday for Athens to place the interest on its debt into a protected account to ensure creditors get paid.

“During the last two years, many promises have been made. When you look at the result there is a big disparity. This creates a lot of mistrust,” said Diego Iscaro, at IHS Global Insight. “The lack of credibility has gone worse because of the lack of progress on all the promises.”

The initial targets may have been too ambitious, Iscaro said, but missing them after having agreed to them mean Greece’s credibility keeps being hit, he said.

Labor Reserve Gone Bad

Athens has made little progress so far on its commitment to slash the public workforce by 150,000 by 2015, abandoning a labor reserve plan that was meant to put 30,000 state workers on the road to redundancy last year. One reason this “plan” didin’t materialise is that those who were responsible to basically sack the state employees are the same people that actually created Greece’s over bloated public sector by hiring their clients/voters and giving them fat “Thank you for coming to work” bonuses.

Shining a Light Into The Shadow Economy

Failure to staunch tax evasion is one major problem. This not only leaves holes in state coffers but also inflames a sense of injustice among salaried employees and civil servants whose taxes are deducted at source.

Ambitious targets to raise state revenues and crack down on tax cheats have been pushed back. In May last year, then Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announced a plan to collect an extra 2.5 billion euros in 2011 from fighting tax evasion and 4.4 billion euros this year.

The plan was abandoned because revenues were too weak and Greece now aims to collect 1.5 billion euros in overdue payments this year, which officials view as more realistic. Tax officials have seen their own pay cut, reducing for some the incentive to tackle reforms.

The shadow economy still accounts for more than a quarter of the 220-billion-euro official output — the highest proportion in the euro zone. Annual tax evasion stands at 40-45 billion euros, said Nikos Lekkas, the no. 2 official in Greece’s Financial and Economic Crime unit.

The government announced with great fanfare a plan to supply consumers with electronic “tax cards” for everyday shopping, to make it more difficult for shopkeepers to dodge sales tax. But just a few thousand shoppers have been using them so far.

“Implementation” -the Greek Way

Even when reforms are enacted, they are often not applied.

An outdated, cumbersome and expensive licensing system for truck drivers was scrapped in a 2010 law hailed as a victory over vested interests. It has yet to be implemented.

Athens has begun opening up closed professions such as taxi drivers, where operators cannot work without hard-to-obtain licenses. But EU/IMF inspectors say implementation is too slow.

Professions such as taxi drivers remain shuttered by legal restrictions. Just last month, lawmakers voted down an article meant to free up and extend pharmacy opening hours.

The government has fallen far behind on a target to raise 50 billion euros from privatization by 2015. It raised just 1.7 billion euros last year, mainly from a pre-arranged stake sale in telecoms company OTE and gaming concessions, missing an initial 5 billion euros target and a revised 4 billion target.

It had promised to raise another 9.3 billion euros this year by selling assets such as buildings and stakes in oil refinery Hellenic Petroleum (HEPr.AT) and gas companies DEPA and DESFA.

However, privatization agency chairman Ioannis Koukiadis told Reuters the target was not achievable and the agency was now aiming for 4.7 billion euros. One reason is that the market value of state-owned companies has plunged, together with most Greek stocks.

Aside from major structural reforms, it is flagrant cases of excessive spending that euro zone capitals most want to see cut – such as the fact that there are 25,000 state-supplied cars on the national budget, according to a senior Greek lawmaker.

The European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF, together known as the troika, have put together a 10-page memo on outstanding measures Athens has to take if a second package of 130 billion euros of loans is to be agreed.

The steps include budget cuts, tax reform, central controls on health spending, improved laws on wage flexibility and easier rules for foreign investment.

The IMF’s chief inspector for Greece, Poul Thomsen, said recently that Greece’s lenders may have over-estimated the capacity of the administration to reform.

An extensive OECD review of Greece’s administration found it was inefficient and poorly organized, with the efforts of those willing to implement reforms blocked by others, and called for a “big bang” reform.

(Source: Reuters)