Greece should be allowed more time to meet deficit targets set by international lenders provided it is sincere about reforming its economy, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Sunday.
Near-bankrupt Greece needs the European Union and International Monetary Fund’s blessing on spending cuts worth nearly 12 billion euros ($16 billion) to unlock its next tranche of aid, without which it faces default and a potential exit from the euro zone.
“The answer must not be a Greek exit from the euro zone,” Ayrault said in an interview with news website Mediapart. “We can already offer it more time…on the condition that Greece is sincere in its commitment to reform, especially fiscal reform.”
Tough fiscal medicine prescribed by Greece’s international lenders has provoked widespread popular anger there that forms part of a broader backlash – spearheaded by French President Francois Hollande – against German-led austerity measures across Europe.
Responding to doubts over Hollande’s ability to deliver on his pro-growth, anti-austerity platform, Ayrault told Mediapart that a planned 120 billion-euro ($155.87 billion) European Union stimulus package for the bloc as a whole was one of his successes – but that even this should only be a first step.
“We need to go further…120 billion is not enough,” he said. “But it is better than nothing.”
(source: Reuters, Mediapart)
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