Monday, August 27, 2012

The 'Showdown Over Greece' Will Be October 18-19

For an excellent update on the state of play in Greece, see the latest report from Der Spiegel, which suggests that Greece will finally reach some sort of climax at the EU Summit on October 18-19. The gist: Europe is done giving more concessions to Greece, and it's up to PM Samaras to put together a real austerity package starting right now, rather than asking for more years, as had been suggested in public.
Samaras now has two to three weeks left to put together an austerity package worth about €14 billion ($17.5 billion) for the next two years. The Greek leader is promising to privatize state-owned businesses, cut government jobs and collect taxes more efficiently. But politicians in Berlin and Brussels doubt whether his new course will produce results quickly enough.
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The troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will spend the entire month of September auditing the books in Athens. Whether the report will be finished by the time the euro-zone finance ministers meet on Oct. 8 is already debatable. Meanwhile, staff at the European Council in Brussels are assuming that the summit of European Union leaders on Oct. 18-19 will be a showdown over Greece.

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