September 21, 2011
More jobs are to be cut, more taxes raised and bigger cuts made to spending, Greece announced today in its latest effort to avoid defaulting on its debts and potentially tearing apart the eurozone.
Despite speculation that Greece would pull out of the single currency, the government in Athens was adamant that it would remain at the "core" of the eurozone. The new cuts, unveiled after the cabinet met for nearly seven hours, risk inflaming the atmosphere at a strike by public transport workers due to take place on Thursday which is likely to bring the capital to a halt.
With the clock ticking on Greece to unveil tough measures to meet the demands of the "troika" of inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and the European Central Bank, the embattled Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, admitted a fresh round of austerity cuts was unavoidable if the next tranche of cash from the €110bn (£96.5bn) bailout was to be released.
"We have to take supplementary measures ... because of the recession, because of the difficult task and the weakness of the central administration have not produced the required results," Venizelos said before the crucial cabinet meeting that eventually sanctioned even tougher austerity measures.
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