Greece has sealed a deal with the EU and IMF that opens the door to a multi-billion euro financial bailout and will require big sacrifices from the Greek people, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said yesterday.
Those sacrifices amount to budget cuts of 30 billion euros (US$40 billion) over three years, on top of measures already agreed and aimed at bringing a towering budget deficit back to the EU limit by 2014.
The government told Greeks, that they had to choose between a rescue or an economic collapse.
The aid package, expected to total up to 120 billion euros over three years, represents the first rescue of a member of the 16-nation eurozone and is aimed at stemming a debt crisis that has shaken markets worldwide.
“It is an unprecedented support package for an unprecedented effort by the Greek people,” a somber Papandreou told a televised Cabinet meeting.
“These sacrifices will give us breathing space and the time we need to make great changes,” he added. “I want to tell Greeks very honestly that we have a big trial ahead of us.”
Finance Minister Giorgis Papaconstantinou gave details of the agreement before heading to a meeting yesterday with his eurozone counterparts in Brussels, where the aid package is expected to win the bloc’s formal backing.
“We are all being called to make a choice,” Papaconstantinou said. “The choice is between collapse or salvation. The choice is between fleshing out a very ambitious and difficult three-year program of fiscal consolidation, a program of structural reforms ... or the country reaching an absolute dead end.”
Athens promised to slash its budget deficit to the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP by 2014 from 13.6 percent last year.
Salaries and pensions in the public sector would be frozen during the three-year program while a fund backed by the IMF and EU would be set up to help Greek banks. Value-added tax and duties on fuel and alcohol will rise sharply.
Papaconstantinou forecast Greece’s public debt would soar to nearly 150 percent of GDP but then start falling from 2014. However, the plan would cover a large part of Greece’s borrowing needs for the next three years, with Athens returning to commercial borrowing when “appropriate.”
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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