EU’s Rehn Says Greece ‘On Track’ to Meet Deficit-Cutting Goals
March 09, 2010, 8:04 AM ESTBy Jonathan Stearns
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Greece is “on track” to achieve its deficit-cutting goals following the passage of extra austerity measures.
The Greek parliament last week passed a package of spending cuts and tax increases to try to convince the EU and investors that Greece is serious about trimming the 27-nation bloc’s widest budget gap. Prime Minister George Papandreou plans to cut the deficit to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product this year and to within the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP in 2012, compared with last year’s 12.7 percent.
The 4.8 billion-euro ($6.5 billion) package of new measures “brings Greece also onto the path of fiscal adjustment for 2012 below 3 percent,” Rehn said in an interview today in Strasbourg, France.
Concern that Greece may need a bailout has weakened the euro and pushed up the premium investors demand to buy its debt over comparable German bonds. That spread reached 305 basis points today, more than twice the level of Nov. 10. The euro has fallen 5 percent this year and traded at $1.3565 at 12:48 p.m. in London, down 0.5 percent on the day.
--Editors: Jones Hayden, James Hertling
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Strasbourg, France, at jstearns2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
