Calamos Supports Greece
GreekReporter.comGreek NewsEconomyGreece to Stay in Recession for 6th Year, 2013 Draft Budget Shows

Greece to Stay in Recession for 6th Year, 2013 Draft Budget Shows

Greece’s brutal recession is set to extend into a sixth year in 2013, when the economy will contract by another 3.8 per cent, according to forecasts in the draft budget submitted to Parliament on Monday.
This year’s recession will see the economy shrink around 6.5 per cent, the document estimated. Unemployment is predicted to rise to 24.7 per cent in 2013 from an average 23.5 per cent in 2012.
The budget sees Greece’s government still running at a loss despite waves of spending cuts and tax hikes over the past two years, as it has struggled to meet the terms for rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.
The deficit for 2012 is expected to stand at 6.6 per cent of GDP, improving slightly to 4.2 per cent — or €8 billion ($10.3 billion) — next year, the document showed.
Greece still has a primary deficit — which excludes interest rates paid on existing debt — of 1.4 per cent of GDP this year, disappointing earlier forecasts for a surplus. That is expected to improve in 2013, when the budget projects a small primary surplus of 1.1 per cent of GDP.
The budget includes about €7.8 billion worth of austerity measures for next year. They are part of a €13.5 billion package of spending cuts and tax hikes for 2013 and 2014 that Greece’s international creditors have demanded in exchange for continued payout of the rescue loans that are protecting the country from a messy default.
Of the €7.8 billion in measures for next year, €3.8 billion are to come from pension cuts and €1.1 billion from salary cuts. Other cutbacks include trimming costs for healthcare, education and defence.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras submitted the draft budget to Parliament after talks with debt inspection teams from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission — known as the troika.
(source: AP)

See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!



Related Posts