Greek lawmakers approve new budget

Greeks protesting austerity meassures

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156736.html


The Greek parliament has approved the government's 2011 budget that includes even deeper austerity measures on the debt-ridden nation amid protest rallies and strikes against the move.

The new measures, narrowly voted on by Greek lawmakers early Thursday, include more spending cuts, tax increases, and a new freeze on pensions.

The legislation is intended to reduce the country's budget deficit of about 9.4 percent of GDP this year to 7.4 percent next year through continued tax hikes and spending cuts in efforts to keep Greece in line with terms of the bailout loan that saved the country from and economic collapse back in May, Reuters reports.

The events take place as Greece suffers its third consecutive year of recession.

The budget passed the parliament on a strict party-line vote by the 156-strong ruling Socialist Party legislators in the 300-member parliament.

“We will do whatever it takes to succeed,” said Prime Minister George Papandreou in an address to the lawmakers just before the vote. “We will change this country.”

However, the leader of the main opposition party, the conservative New Democracy, told lawmakers that the 2011 budget and the bailout funds would eventually fail.

Public transportation in Greece came to a halt in the capital Athens on Wednesday as thousands of protesters rallied peacefully across from the parliament to protest wage cuts and other measures aimed at stemming a financial crisis that has brought a major impact on the euro zone, spread to Ireland, and may further extend to other countries such as Portugal.