Greece Likely to Miss Deficit Targets, Austerity Measures Not Enough
U.S. urges Europe to be more aggressive in tackling financial crisis
Forecasts from observers worldwide say that Greece may possibly fail to overcome a deficit target that was agreed upon months ago in a huge rescue package indicating that desperate measures to preclude bankruptcy is not sufficient.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Tinothy F. Geithner has commented that Europe has not been that assertive in it s move to curb the financial meltdown, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The gloomy predictions came in the midst of negotiations between Greek government officials and inspectors from the European Union, IMF and the European Central Bank.
The have been locked in talks regarding the approval of the 8 billion euro loan release within the middle of Oct.
It appears that Greece is trapped in a descending twist as the global economic deceleration has aggravated the impact of austerity measures in 2010.
Analysts say that the nation requires an economic makeover to be able to recover and focus on collection of taxes, enhance competition and scale down the public sector. The euro zone should also accede to a bigger debt restructuring than what was decided on last July.
The draft budget for 2012 that was approved by the cabinet on Oct. 2 predicted a deficit of 8.5 percent of the GDP for the current year, short of the 7.6 percent goal, a report from Reuters mentioned.
Geithner maintained that Europe possessed the financial resources to "deal with the sovereign debt crisis and it is a matter of moving more quickly and forcefully."
"Europe has already requested the U.S. through the IMF and by means of Federal Reserve swap lines with the ECB," he added.
Financial Post columnist Pierre Brianon suggested that the EU could provide more economic assistance to Greece.
"The Breugel think-tank has suggested leveraging unused EU structural funds as part of a grand plan to reform higher education, subsidize internal devaluation and improve small and mid-sized businesses' access to finance. Such efforts would take years to bear fruit. In the meantime there would still be austerity. But in the meantime, the Greeks would know that the eurozone has more to offer than pain," he stated.
Continuous international pressure may have forced European leaders to double their efforts to assist banks and impel investors to embrace bigger losses as part of the Greek bailout.