Thursday, June 30, 2011
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece
Greece fended off a bankruptcy that threatened to roil global financial markets, approving severe spending cuts and tax increases Wednesday in the face of violent protests by Greeks who say they have suffered enough.
The package of austerity measures would keep bailout money flowing to Greece from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund. It would free $17 billion in fresh loans, although the money will only be enough to see the nation through September.
Investors around the world cheered the news, but protesters, fighting tear gas, hurled whatever they could find at riot police and tried to blockade the Parliament building.
Public-sector salaries and pensions have been cut in the past year, and unemployment is above 16 percent. By comparison, it is about 9 percent in the United States.
Parliament approved $40 billion in tax increases and spending cuts, and privatization of public services to raise $71 billion more, all through 2015. Greece’s overall economic output is about $330 billion, or roughly the size of Washington state’s.
The $17 billion in loans are the latest batch in a $157 billion bailout by the European Union and the IMF. Parliament is expected to pass another bill today to implement the austerity measures.