More Austere Greece

In spite of the fact austerity is hammering Greece's economy, they are doing it again. Why? To meet the demands of the IMF and EU.

Greece plans on more deep cuts to get their deficit to 7.4% of GDP in 2011.

Greece pledged on Thursday to hike VAT, freeze pensions and cut government waste further in 2011 to meet the terms of an EU/IMF bailout after admitting it will miss this year's targets.

The deficit will shrink by 5.1 billion euros next year to 16.8 billion euros, or 7.4 percent of GDP, back in line with the terms of the bailout deal.

This is in the midst of a predicted 3% GDP contraction in 2011. This year Greece's economy is projected to shrink 4.2% (GDP).

They are selling stakes in state run companies, slashing health benefits and going after salaries of some workers. They are even selling their government airplanes.

Earlier Greece revised their deficit figures to be 15.4% of GDP and the largest in the EU.

The austerity measures are deepening a two-year recession in the country. The economy shrank 1.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, the largest contraction in the EU and unemployment reached a record high of more than 12 percent in August.

Gee, who else has 12% unemployment?

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