Athens Takes New Austerity As Eurogroup Notes Progress

Athens Takes New Austerity As Eurogroup Notes Progress

On Wednesday the Greek Parliament in Athens approved the required the bill to allow the government to privatize public utilities and are set to vote again on new austerity measures to secure the bailout funds.

Debt-laden Greece remains center stage as the decision from the Eurogroup to release the tranche this month.

The Parliament in a thin majority vote passed the privatization bill on Wednesday with 148 to 139 in the 300 seat parliament. The majority vote remains slim as the coalition government is nominally supported by 176 deputies.

Greece’s draft budget for 2013 provided more bad news for the euro finance ministers and the Parliament as the nation forecasted a deeper recession and worse debt stance than previously expected.

The Greek economy is expected to contract by 4.5% next year and government debt is expected to rise to 189% of the GDP.

Greece is still in talks with the Eurogroup for the next tranche and after a two-hour conference call with the euro area finance ministers on Wednesday there seems to be little progress made despite the positive feedback from Germany!

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a news conference that “there was considerable progress” but the general feedback was not as optimistic.