"I was called by the Prime Minister of Greece who told me that an agreement had been reached“. This was stated by the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, during the press conference at the end of the Governing Council, in reference to the austerity measures requested of Athens in exchange for new international aid worth 130 billion euros. A decisive new package to avoid the default of the country, which otherwise would have been forced to declare bankruptcy in just over a month.
The first to break the news was a spokesman for the Greek Executive. This evening during the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, the Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, will announce the details of the agreement reached in extremis.
The latest official communication from the leaders of the three parties that support the government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos (the socialist Georges Papandreou, Antonis Samaras from the right and Georges Karatzaferis from the far right) spoke of "a broad agreement on all points of the program , except for what concerns the cut in supplementary pensions”.
This morning it was cicolata for a few hours voice of an extension of 15 granted by the troika (EU, ECB and IMF) to the Greek government. The executive should have reached an agreement with the parties on the remaining 300 million euros to be found in order to collect the aid (the other 325 billion will come from cuts in defense spending and other ministries). However, the news had not been confirmed by any international source.
Now that the deal has finally come, the country's private creditors – who are due to meet in Paris today – should agree to a 100 billion euro cut in their repayments.
Among the new measures introduced is included the cutting of 15 public jobs and a 22% reduction in minimum wages, which drop to 450-500 euros per month. In protest against these decisions, the major Greek trade unions (Gsee and Adedy) have proclaimed a new general strike for tomorrow and the day after. A demonstration will also take place in Athens, in front of the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the latest data on Greek unemployment was announced: the unemployed exceeded one million for the first time, reaching a record rate of 20,9%.
