Posted on 06/01/2010 1:13:12 PM PDT by mainsail that
(Reuters) ..."Research firm Capital Economics expects the deficit to shrink to about 9 percent of GDP from 13.6 percent in 2009, short of an 8.1 percent target set out in Greece's bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union...
..About 60,000 smaller retailers, around a third of the total, are expected to shut down by the end of the year, said Vassilis Korkidis, chairman of Trade Association ESEE.
Squeezed by a four-point VAT hike to 23 percent and an estimated loss of households' purchasing power of about 10 percent as a result of public sector pay cuts, smaller retail players are in danger of vanishing.
"Turnover is down 30 percent year-on-year," Korkidis told Reuters. "Many shops don't see a single customer for days."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Greece is a lost cause, best the EU can hope for is surviving its default and hoping Portugal and Spain don’t follow suit.
They really need to cut harder and skip the tax hike, oh well, what are you going to do. I always thought Europe would go down before us although obama’s trying to change that.
Yep, this means that their debt will increase beyond 150% of the GDP. Point of no return
Japan has a higher % ratio, but it pays under 2% for their debt.
Pat Robertson’s idea for an International Year of Jubilee is sounding less kooky all the time
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