GREECE’s public sector employees and suppliers have not been paid amid further signs the cash-strapped country’s bankruptcy is imminent.
As the country’s need for a bailout loan reaches crisis point, workers and business reliant on government funding have been left in a state of panic and confusion.
“We are now running one month behind on our salaries. Until only recently we were two months behind, and no-one would tell us if and when we would get our next pay cheque,” one employee at an institution funded by the government told the BBC. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Christos Staikouras
Greek records first surplus as EU moves closer to balanced budgets
BRUSSELS – Cash-strapped Greece recorded its first primary budget surplus in a generation last year, according to data released by Eurostat on Wednesday (23 April).
Excluding interest on its debt repayments and a number of one-off measures to prop up its banks, Athens recorded a surplus of €1.5 billion, worth the equivalent of 0.8% of its economic output in 2013. Despite this, Greece still recorded an overall deficit figure of 12.7 percent, up by 4 percent on the previous year as the crisis-hit country endured a sixth straight year of recession. Continue reading