February 19, 2012
Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said Greece found all the extra cuts needed to lower spending by 325 million euros ($427 million) to secure a bailout aimed at averting the region’s first sovereign default.
The government identified “a series of additional measures amounting to 125 million euros in order to complete the package of budget cuts worth 325 million euros,” Papademos told ministers at a meeting of the Cabinet in Athens yesterday, according to an e-mailed transcript.
Finance ministers from all 17 euro-area countries meet in Brussels tomorrow as governments close in on a deal to unlock a 130 billion-euro aid package for Greece, the second such international bailout of the country in two years. Germany, the biggest country contributing to euro-area rescues, signaled last week that ministers may be ready to back the plan.
The steps, which Greece has agreed in principle with the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank will lead to a permanent cut in government spending and a narrower deficit, Papademos said.
Greece has been struggling to give assurances on debt- reduction goals through the end of the decade, heightening uncertainty as the clock ticks toward a March 20 bond redemption, when it must pay 14.5 billion euros or trigger the first default in the euro’s 13-year history. Tomorrow’s gathering of ministers is due to start at 3:30 p.m. instead of the usual 5 p.m.
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