EU backs new deficit cuts ATHENS – Greece announced painful new austerity measures Wednesday worth €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) to deal with a financial crisis that has hammered the euro and unsettled financial markets. The decisions were “not taken out of choice but out of necessity,” Prime Minister George Papandreou said as he briefed the country's president on the new measures, which are aimed at winning European Union support for Greece and calming financial markets. “They were necessary for the survival of our country and our economy, and for Greece to escape the whirlwind of speculators.” The measures contain €2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) in new revenues such as taxes and another €2.4 billion in spending cut. They include cuts in civil servants' salaries, pension freezes, increasing sales tax, or VAT, from 19 percent to 21 percent and hiking taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, luxury cars, yachts, precious stones and leather goods among others. The European Union had expressed support for Greece but demanded additional cuts, and Papandreou said the government was “awaiting European solidarity” regarding the new plan. “That is the other side of this agreement. So Europe faces a historic responsibility,” he said. Two senior government officials said Papandreou refused to rule out the option of Greece going to the International Monetary Fund to seek help. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose discussions during a closed-door Cabinet meeting just before the austerity measures were announced. Greece is already receiving IMF advice on how to deal with the crisis but European Union officials oppose an IMF bailout. The government hopes endorsement of the latest measures will open the door for a possible financial backstop from other European Union countries and convince bond investors to keep loaning the country money so it can roll over €54 billion in expiring debt. Greece has come under intense pressure from the European Union to tame its finances, which include a budget deficit that stands at a staggering 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. Athens has promised to reduce it to 8.7 percent this year, but many economists consider that goal unrealistic. The European Commission and the top economy official in the 16 nations that use the euro backed Greece's decisions, saying they would help financial stability of Europe's currency union. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the head of a group of eurozone finance ministers, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, both said they were confident Greece could now reduce its deficit by the required four percentage points this year, and said the country's ambitious program “is now credibly on track.” Germany, which Papandreou will be visiting on Friday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, welcomed the new austerity plan as an important step toward restoring market confidence but made clear it is not currently planning to pledge aid to Athens. The new measures are “in line with the talks so far and pledges so far by Greece with its European partners,” said Christoph Steegmans, a spokesman for Merkel. “The goverment trusts that Greece will do its homework, strengthen the credibility of the country and support the stability of the euro,” he said, stressing that Merkel's meeting with Papandreou on Friday is not meant to involve “pledges of help.” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the decisions “go in the right direction and deserve our respect. Our Greek partners thereby show their responsibility for Europe and the common currency. Now, it is decisive for Greece to speedily and fully implement all its decisions.” As soon as this will be done, the markets' trust should be clearly strengthened and Greece should be able to refinance its debt on the markets, he said. “All this taken together is of high importance for the stability of our common currency,” Schaeuble said. Greece wants EU help to borrow money at lower rates, but European officials have remained tightlipped over any potential rescue plan, insisting Athens must first improve its finances. Greece's financial crisis has severely shaken confidence in the euro, the common currency used by 16 nations. It has also lead to market expectations of some sort of bailout led by the German and French governments. UniCredit analyst Tullia Bucco said in a Wednesday research note that reducing the compensation of Greek government employees represents an important area of potential savings, as could a reform of the country's pension scheme. UniCredit said Greek pension expenditures currently absorb nearly half of the resources devoted to social payments, while the effects of population aging will become critical by the end of the decade. “Reforms to boost potential growth, while currently not on the government agenda, won't come a moment too soon to make the fiscal adjustment more tolerable,” Bucco said.
