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Greece plans to reduce red figure in order to get close to the capital subvention.
www.sina.com 03.05.2010
 

The local time at noon, Greece government had a declaration after several hours of cabinet council. They Greece government is planning to reduce the red figure for about 4.8 billion Euro (equals about 6.6 billion US dollar) in order to get the capital subvention from other countries on European Union.

This new measure from Greece is welcomed by Germany and many other European countries. This plan also helps to sweep away the obstacles on the way to get the hearsay united capital subvention to Greece. After the spreading of the above mentioned news, Euro has raised slightly, the yield difference between Greece national debt and the comparable Germany national debt has greatly narrowed, the Europe stock markets have all narrowed the falling scale. Well, the Pacific- Asia stock markets have raised before closing quotation.

Some analysts said that the “slimming” plan which was published by Greece on Wednesday came out on stage under the huge pressure from Germany, France and other countries.

In the red figure reducing plan which was submitted to Europe Union in the middle of January, the Greece government committed to descend the percentage of red figure from 12.7% to 8.7% at the end of this year. However, Europe Union insisted that Greece should take further step of fiscal contraction if Greece government wished to get capital subvention from the allied countries; because the current red figure reducing plan was just aiming at raise income, but not reducing expenditure.

Some resources from European governments disclosed that Germany and France were exchange views for a project to succor Greece. According to the plan, these countries will have their state owned finance institutes to buy millions of Greece national debt, or to supply guarantee to their domestic commercial banks to buy Greece national debt.

In order to satisfy the requirement of Germany, France and other countries, the Greece prime minister George Papandreou had urgently convoked cabinet council at 9 o’clock in Wednesday morning (at 15 o’clock Beijing time) for several hours, and published the new red figure reducing plan before noon at local time.

As per reported, the new plan includes adjusting up the tobacco tax, alcohol tax and VAT rate from 19% to 21%. This plan will bring 2.4 billion Euro incomes to the government. The government also plans to reduce the government employees’ welfare from 10% which has been published before to 12%. What’s more, the government employees’ bonus for holidays and weekends will be reduced 30%; this will reduce one month salary to those officials in public departments. Well, this action might draw down the strong resistance from the labor unions organizations.

As per some analysts’ estimation, the reducing plan which was published by Greece government on 3rd equals 2% of Greece GDP, about a half of the red figure reducing commitment which was made by the Greece government at the beginning of this year.

After the publication of the new measure from Greece, some officials of Europe Union countries all had active response. A councillor of Germany said, the red figure reducing plan declared by Papandreou was definitely an active progress. Oettinger, the commissioner of Germany in Europe Union, said that the other Europe Union countries could begin to discuss about the capital subvention to Greece after the Greece government had showed its will to provide for and help itself.

On this Friday, Papandreou will fly to Berlin to meet the number one of Euro area, the Germany prime minister Angela Merkel. Merkel emphasized on 1st that Greece should take more measures to reduce the huge fiscal red figure. Besides, as per an electronic declaration from the Greece government on 3rd , Papandreou will fly to Paris on 7th to meet the French President Nicolas Sarkozy too.

Considering of many factors, Greece had not been willing to ask for the help from allied countries. However, in this week, the over burdened Greece government finally relented and decided to get help. Papandreou said on 2nd in Athens, “We need the support from our partners. In order to give us help, they (referring to Germany and France) also need their people to make donation too, therefore, they have to convince their people, and we Greece is doing what we should do.”

After the publication of the new reducing plan, the market has actively made some reactions. Euro converting into US dollar has risen for the second trading day. The Greece national debt has risen continuously.

Up till 19 o’clock of Beijing Time, Euro converting US dollar is 1:1.3621, slight 0.1% up. The day before yesterday, Euro increased 0.4%, but once time touched the bottom at the quotation during the past 9 months.

It is worth to mention that British pound has finally stopped falling down for continuous six trading days in the Greek optimist atmosphere of being rescued. Yesterday, in the early Europe quotation, British pound converting US dollar had risen 0.5% for one time and turned back to 1.50.

At the bond markets, Greece national debt has risen on 3rd for the fourth trading day. The yield of Greece national debt with term of 10 years descended to the lowest point during the past three weeks dated from February 11th. At the same time, the yield at premium between Greece national debt and comparable Germany national debt has kept descending. All these show that the investors think the risk of buying Greece national debt is reducing.

Before, for the cause of the worry about Greece government’s financing ability for its huge debt, the yield at a premium between the benchmark Greece national debt and comparable Germany national debt had once touched 396 basic points at the end of January, this was the lowest level since the birth of Euro. To Greece, this status was snow plus frost – one disaster after anther, because this meant Greece would pay more cost for its financing in the future.

The Europe stock market with low beginning on 3rd has risen too just at the sound of the declaration of Greece’s government’s red figure reducing plan. It began to appear a good trend of rising for continuous three trading days.

Up till 19 o’clock of Beijing Time, Dow Jones Europe 600 Index basically kept balance, it change the falling trend in the early quotation. At the three Europe big stock markets, British United Kingdom stock market stopped the falling trend at the beginning of quotation and kept balance; Germany and France stock markets slightly fell down 0.2%, but narrowed the falling trend comparing with the early quotation.

On the Tuesday, Europe stock markets have risen for continuous three trading days. News about Greece government’s red figure reducing plan has made investors feel a bit relaxed for the status of Greece.

United States America stock market had continuously risen on 2nd for the third day. The possible relief to Greece Debt Crisis brought support to the stock market, Dow Jones Index slightly rose 0.02%, quoted 10406 points and closed most of falling trend since the beginning of this year.

The optimist atmosphere about the possible relief of Greece Debt Crisis affected the Pacific Asia market too yesterday. Most of regional main stock markets closed with high quotation. Among them, the stock market in Tokyo Japan closed with 0.3%, the stock market in Australia rose 0.7%, the stock market in Singapore rose 0.4%, the stock market in Korea rose 0.5%, only the stock market in Hong Kong China fell 0.1%.

However, though the worry to Greece Debt Crisis has got a bit relieved, as per a newest investigation, many economists still have a suspicion if Greece government can realize the goal of reducing 4 percentage of red figure this year. There are also some persons worrying that Papandreou’s red figure reducing plan might meet nongovernmental and official resistance. The New Democratic Party who failed in the election with Papandreou in the parliament last year will not easy let pass the new government’s contraction measure, and at the same time, the rejections and strikes have never stopped recently.

 

 
  
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