Getting ready to enter a third year of austerity measures and a sixth of recession, plans to halt Greece’s slide have failed to halt a further decline in the economy, which shrank by 6.9 percent in the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period a year ago.
ELSTAT, the national statistics agency reported, however, that the decrease was less than the 7.2 percent drop estimated for November, based on new data that wasn’t available last month. That was before the implementation of a new $17.45 billion spending cut and tax hike plan further expected to keep the economy in a stranglehold.
Separately, Greece’s debt management agency has announced it will seek to raise 3.75 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in treasury bills next week. The debt agency said it would auction 2.125 billion euros ($2.74 billion) in one-month bills and 1.25 billion euros ($1.61 billion) in six month bills.
The debt-choked Greece economy has forced successive governments since 2010 to seek international aid that came with attached austerity measures that has worsened the country’s recession and created a record 26 percent unemployment. Lenders blamed the crisis on decades of runaway government spending and political parties packing public payrolls with hundreds of thousands of needless workers, a common practice in Greece to get votes.
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