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Greece is the next Lehman Brothers

16 December 2009 / 09:12:34  GRReporter
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This claims Hans Werner Sinn, president of Ifo Institute for Economic Research. Eurozone will not collapse because of Greece, says he. But Greece can become the next big global bankruptcy. Those evaluations are not by accident. The Athenian stock exchange closed the day with a 2% fall and the stocks of all Greek banks got cheaper after last night Greek PM Giorgos Papandreou announced the economic reforms of his team. In a single day Greek government bonds devalued with over 2.5%.

90-percent tax on bonuses in the private sector and no bonuses in the state one, a moratorium on appointments in state enterprises, wage freezes of salaries of over €2000 per month and a drastic reduction in military spending in 2011 and 2012. These are some of the measures announced by the Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou, in order to try and bridle the huge deficit of the country, which threatens to bankrupt the entire economy.

Reforms in the Greek economy should include serious cuts in government spending valued representatives of international credit rating agency Moody's, who are visiting Athens at the beginning of this week. According to financial experts the government should take radical measures to reduce the costs contained in the budget for 2010, because otherwise there is a real threat from rising government deficit from the current 113% to 120% of GDP by the end of next year.

The agency's first comments were that Greece must find a way for deeper cuts in public spending (with the exception of the programs provided for financing of economic growth). Representatives of Moody's visited the State Treasury, where an overview of the so called data "gray areas" was done in the state budget. The ways of financing social insurance funds in 2010, expenditure flows and future payments of state hospitals to suppliers were reviewed, which in 2009 reached excess costs of €6.6 billion.

As a step in the right direction, but no concrete measures to reduce public expenditure, was the evaluation of European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Joaquin Almunia regarding Papandreou’s economic program.

Representatives of the Greek business are very restrained in their assessments of the economic reforms of Papandreou. According to them in times of economic crisis, taxes should be lowered in order to stimulate the market, rather than increasing them, as is the intention of the government. As a major shortcoming of Papandreou’s program they also indicate a lack of measures to stimulate economic growth.

Particularly acute is the reaction of the bank sector in Greece, which noted that at the moment bankers' bonuses are taxed at the highest taxes. They remind that in the private banking salaries are relatively low, which is compensated by bonuses. "What will happen is that salaries will increase, there will be no bonuses and this way state budget revenues will be liquidated, which currently come from bank bonuses,” comment bankers.

Tags: Greece bankruptcy Greek economy Lehman Brothers Greece economic collapse
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