Greece can expect a fourth year of recession, the country΄s finance minister said Thursday, even as he defended fresh austerity measures against criticism from the main opposition party.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos attacked the center-right New Democracy party–which has loudly objected to the government΄s austerity measures–for its unrealistic proposals to boost economic growth.
“The depth of the recession has to be understood,” Venizelos told a parliamentary committee. “It has to be grasped that the Greek people are paying a cost, that there is a cumulative recession of three years, which will now be four years.”
“It is not possible for all of us to say we believe in growth and support the real economy without taking that into account,” he added.
The recession has been made worse by a raft of spending cuts and tax increases the government has taken in the past two years to cut the deficit in exchange for a EUR110 billion bailout it received last year.
In his remarks, Venizelos said Greece had no intention of revising its deficit targets despite a recent dispute with its international creditors over whether the government would have to take fresh austerity measures to meet those goals this year.
“The (property tax) will have the smallest recessionary impact,” Venizelos said. “If we raise any other, mainly indirect tax, the recessionary impact would be much bigger.”
(source: Dow Jones)
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