ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's new government will present "alarming" data on its recession and unemployment to international debt inspectors this week, in a bid to renegotiate the terms of its bailout agreements.
Spokesman Simos
Kedikoglou said in a television interview Tuesday that the data would
demonstrate that the current austerity program was counterproductive. He
did not elaborate.
Greece is relying on rescue loans from its
partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to avoid
bankruptcy. In exchange, it has made painful austerity cuts, such as tax
hikes and cuts to public sector jobs, pensions and salaries.
Along
with uncertainty over the country’s finances, those austerity measures
have hit the economy hard — it is in a fifth year of recession, with
unemployment topping 22 percent, roughly double the eurozone average.
The
Greek government will argue that it cannot withstand the current pace
of austerity terms. Debt inspectors from the European Commission, the
European Central Bank and the IMF are due in Athens Wednesday.
“We
will present information that is astounding. It is alarming in terms of
the recession and unemployment, and it shows beyond any doubt that the
current policy does not bring results. It brings the opposite results,”
Kedikoglou told private Antenna television.
Conservative Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras has promised to seek more time to meet the
deficit reduction targets, after winning a general election last month
and joining traditional rival Socialists in a coalition government.
Evangelos
Venizelos, the Socialist leader, told a financial conference Tuesday
that a renegotiation of bailout terms was inevitable.
“Greece,
regardless of which government represents it, cannot remain indifferent
to this deep recession … that is approaching an aggregate 20 percent
of gross domestic product. No government can remain indifferent to an
unemployment rate that exceeds 22 percent and 55 among young people,” he
said.
“The extension of the economic adjustment program is the
cornerstone of the country’s strategy and of the basis of the coalition
government’s cooperation.”
Rescue creditors have so far appeared cool to the idea of extending Greece’s deficit reduction deadlines.
On
Monday, a senior official from the European Central Bank, Joerg
Asmussen, warned that lengthening the program would simply put off
unavoidable reforms, and could threaten efforts to make Greek national
debt sustainable.
