Greek economy shrinks by 2.5 percent in first quarter

Greek Parliament
Greek Parliament
Image by dungodung

Greek economy shrinks by 2.5 percent in first quarter
The Greek economy shrank by an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the country’s National Statistics Agency announced on Wednesday. The decrease is higher than the earlier estimate of 2.3 percent which was released a month ago by the same agency. Greece, which has been hit hard by the global economic crisis since late 2009, has sunk deep into recession. According to the …
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A guard in front of the Greek Parliament.
Greek Parliament
Image by Patrick Mayon

Greece’s parliament voted Thursday to pass the three-year EUR30 billion package of austerity measures, as had been expected. The bill passed by 172 votes from a total of 300 lawmakers. Thus it only required 151 to vote for it. The votes against totaled 121. The vote follows an all-day debate against the backdrop of a mass protest and general strike Wednesday against the measures, which erupted into violence leading to the deaths of three people in a firebomb attack on a Greek bank. More protest were being held outside the parliament by several thousand protestors as the debate and vote was taking place, against the imposition of austerity measures. The socialist government already had 160 votes assure from its parliamentary majority but was joined by far-right LAOS party and some conservative party parliamentarians broke ranks and voted for the bill. Prime Minister Gepreg Papndreou said “we will not allow the country to fall into bankruptcy, or allow speculators to destabilize us and we will not fail to live up to our responsibility’s because of political cost.” He warned all parties not to vote against the bill asking what would happen to pensions, wages and deposits if the country falls into bankruptcy. The main conservative opposition party voted against the bill arguing that the austerity measures would lead to spiral of deeper recession and more austerity measures. But New Democracy did agree with a few measures, such as the hike in excise taxes for alcohol and
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