Cautious hope for Greece debt deal as leaders tour Europe
A week ago Alexis Tsipras won the elections in Greece and since then has been meeting with Eurozone’s officials. Tsipras and the new Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis are trying to find ways to get out of this enormous debt the country is in. They are trying to convince Europe that in order to pay off the debt they need to restore growth within the country. Tsipras has gotten mostly positive feedback from his meetings; both Italy and France are saying that they will help out Greece and won’t be as hard on them. Merkel is already refusing debt cancellation since she has already made concession.
The government has already announced that they will not be
getting another loan, but that has raised questions and no one understands how
the country will be able to manage. Unemployment has reached 25% and the
economy has shrunken 25%. The austerity measures the previous government had
taken completely crushed the Greek citizens and this is why they elected a new
party. As of now Greece owes a total of €323bn. Out of this amount 60% is to the Eurozone, 10% to the IMF
15% to other bonds, 6% to the European Central Bank, 3% to Greek Banks and 3%
to other loans they have gotten.
My first thought by
reading this article was that Greece doesn’t stand a chance. €323 bn is
a big amount of money that cannot be paid off immediately no matter who does
what. On the other hand something needs to be done and maybe what Tsipras is
trying to do may offer Greece a chance. For many years now there has not been
any growth so why not try something new? Greeks have never voted for a left
party and the fact that Syriza won the elections is a major change. I believe
that the citizens in Greece are just desperate and needed to believe in change.
Now it is in Tsipras hands to help the country as much as he can!
Eugenia Marantos
2/6/2015
11:50 AM
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