IMF endorses Greek budget
GREECE has agreed on the details of a five-year austerity plan with EU and IMF inspectors hoping to steer the country away from bankruptcy.
The beleaguered country’s new finance minister Evangelos Venizelos met with a delegation of EU and IMF officials in Athens yesterday to discuss measures for extra tax rises and spending cuts to plug a €3.8bn funding gap.
In a press conference yesterday, Venizelos announced details of some of the measures including a new “solidarity levy” on all Greek wage earners of between one and five per cent. The budget would also include lowering the minimum threshold for income tax to €8,000 a year from its current level of €12,000.
Greek lawmakers must pass the new new round of austerity measures through parliament next week in exchange for second rescue package worth €120bn that has been agreed to in principle by Eurozone members.
“The basic issue of the day is to finalise the programme,” Venizelos told a news conference. “Our basic aim is to regain our credibility.”
Prime Minister George Papandreou was meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels last night where talks were dominated by talks on preventing spread of Greece’s debt crisis.