Greece’s pensioners to suffer MORE: Europe demands austerity as debt hits £268BILLION
GREEK politicians are being told to go after the country’s already squeezed pensioners as it faces yet more austerity measures.
By SIOBHAN MCFADYEN
Express.co.uk
Wed, Apr 26, 2017
Germany and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have failed to make an agreement over the conditions of a new bail out package.
And while the country’s debt bubble continues to mount, as it tries to cope with the migrant crisis from 2015, its citizens are being penalised.
Thousands of hungry, cold and desperate pensioners have taken to the streets of the country to protest at Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras handling of the debt crisis.
The latest figures show Greece’s debt stands at 179 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), or about £268billion (€315bn).
Currently the country owes about €216bn euros to the European Stability Mechanism, a permanent agency, based in Luxembourg, which replaced the temporary European Financial Stability Facility. That body had guaranteed €544.05bn to a variety of member states.
Representatives of the Greek government flew to Washington last week to discuss their options at the IMF and World Bank Spring conference.
But they failed to reach a conclusive agreement after the IMF disputed figures and Germany called for more cuts.
Now Jean-Claude Juncker, who earns more than €300,000-a-year, says he is softening on his hardline approach to making the country impose far reaching cuts on the vulnerable.
But he has refused to absolutely exercise any influence on former French finance minister Christine Lagarde who runs the IMF.
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