Forget Brexit, Grexit is back
It’s crunch time for Greece. Between now and July 20, the Greek government must find €16.2 billion to repay creditors. That’s the real short-term crisis facing the European Union.
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Incidentally, the total debt owed by the governments who use the euro amounted to a staggering €9.614 trillion, and for the entire 28 EU members, the figure is €12.354 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2016.
But back to Greece: Between now and the end of July, the Athens governments must find €16.2 billion to repay its creditors. Putting that figure in perspective, in the two years between February 2015 and February 2017, Greece has paid $34 billion back to its creditors. Over the next three months, it will need to find pretty much half of that again.
It’s a punishing repayment schedule, one that will reach a make-or-break climax between July 17 and 20, where €6.27 billion must be repaid to the IMF, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank and private investors. Should Athens default, defer or stall on any of these payments, it will hit the common currency hard and provide more ammunition to May, Euro-sceptics across the continent as well as France’s Marine Le Pen that the institutions that bind the EU together in Brussels are broken.
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Greek voters have had enough of austerity measures and extra taxation. Passage of some of the harshest cuts yet earlier this year has seen the Tsirpas government’s popularity nosedive in polls, and asking for any more is “not only extreme but absurd,” the PM said.
Right now, 36.8 per cent of the Greek government’s annual revenue comes from taxation revenues for 2015. In 2009, before the first of the three bailouts, it was 30.9 per cent, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Over that same period, Germany’s percentage of revenues from tax has remained relatively stable, from 36.1 to 36.9 per cent.
“Greece cannot grow out of its debt problem,” the Washington-based body wrote in a confidential report leaked to the media in February. “Greece requires substantial debt relief from its European partners to restore debt sustainability.”
Simply put, the next three months is crunch time. Grexit anyone?
Roll on Grexit.
[video=youtube;nGt82RFfg3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt82RFfg3U[/video]
It’s crunch time for Greece. Between now and July 20, the Greek government must find €16.2 billion to repay creditors. That’s the real short-term crisis facing the European Union.
...........
Incidentally, the total debt owed by the governments who use the euro amounted to a staggering €9.614 trillion, and for the entire 28 EU members, the figure is €12.354 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2016.
But back to Greece: Between now and the end of July, the Athens governments must find €16.2 billion to repay its creditors. Putting that figure in perspective, in the two years between February 2015 and February 2017, Greece has paid $34 billion back to its creditors. Over the next three months, it will need to find pretty much half of that again.
It’s a punishing repayment schedule, one that will reach a make-or-break climax between July 17 and 20, where €6.27 billion must be repaid to the IMF, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank and private investors. Should Athens default, defer or stall on any of these payments, it will hit the common currency hard and provide more ammunition to May, Euro-sceptics across the continent as well as France’s Marine Le Pen that the institutions that bind the EU together in Brussels are broken.
...........
Greek voters have had enough of austerity measures and extra taxation. Passage of some of the harshest cuts yet earlier this year has seen the Tsirpas government’s popularity nosedive in polls, and asking for any more is “not only extreme but absurd,” the PM said.
Right now, 36.8 per cent of the Greek government’s annual revenue comes from taxation revenues for 2015. In 2009, before the first of the three bailouts, it was 30.9 per cent, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Over that same period, Germany’s percentage of revenues from tax has remained relatively stable, from 36.1 to 36.9 per cent.
“Greece cannot grow out of its debt problem,” the Washington-based body wrote in a confidential report leaked to the media in February. “Greece requires substantial debt relief from its European partners to restore debt sustainability.”
Simply put, the next three months is crunch time. Grexit anyone?
Roll on Grexit.
[video=youtube;nGt82RFfg3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGt82RFfg3U[/video]
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