Brussels, 31/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Details of the €11.5 billion of Greek spending cuts will be unveiled in August when they have been fully finalised, explained a Greek government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, on Tuesday 31 July 2012 on Greek television channel SKAI TV. French newspaper Les Échos says that the cuts may actually be finalised later this week. On Monday evening, the leaders of the coalition government party - Samaras of New Democracy, Venizelos of PASOK and Kouvelis of Democratic Left - formally agreed among themselves about the scale of the cuts.
“We are following the only road that can keep Greece in Europe and we are trying to do this with the fewest possible sacrifices”, said Kedikoglou. The politicians may decide to ask lenders to give the country more time to meet its budget commitments because “we must take into account the fact that the recession is deeper than anticipated by our European peers”, explained Venizelos. Kouvelis said that talks were continuing and people had to take account of that fact that “Greek society cannot support any more burdens”. Les Échos report that the sticking points within the coalition are pay cuts, civil service pension cuts and the age of retirement, which the Greek prime minister, Samaras, wants to extend to 67.
Greece does not have much room for manoeuvre. It is finding it difficult to get the austerity ball rolling again, but has to deliver by making the Greek people go along with unpopular cuts in order to ensure that the country's lenders continue to drip-feed cash. Germany's finance minister said at the weekend that he did not see any room for reducing the measures set out in the second Greek bailout programme, although various bodies say talks are currently under way on a possible write-down or restructuring of Greek bonds owned by organisations like the ECB. The troika of lenders (the European Commission, ECB and IMF) is keeping a close eye on developments and will remain in Athens over the summer.
The Greek public purse is reported to be wearing thin three weeks before the maturity of some €3 billion of Greek bonds. Speaking on NET television, the country's deputy finance minister, Staikouras, expressed concern that Greece's financial reserves were running out, but would not give any idea of timing. (EL, with MB/transl.fl)