Greeks Riot as Parliament Approves Budget Cuts to Avoid Debt Default

Posted on | June 30, 2011 | 16 Comments

Financial markets breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday after the Greek parliament approved an austerity plan needed to avert default on the nation’s debt:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.73 points, or 0.60%, to 12261.42, capping the blue-chip measure’s biggest three-day gain since March. . . .
Stocks have swung up and down for weeks on worries that Greece poses a contagion risk to European banks and other heavily indebted euro-zone countries. The passage of unpopular austerity measures Wednesday was seen as paving the way for the heavily indebted country to get another round of aid, staving off a default. It was also viewed as moving the euro zone closer to containing its debt crisis.

The New York Times reports:

Greek lawmakers voted on Wednesday to sharply reduce government spending and sell off an array of national assets, staving off default on the country’s debt and easing, for the moment, a crisis among countries that use the euro. . . .
[C]ritics said they doubted that Europe had done more than postpone a day of reckoning for the euro, with Ireland, Portugal and Spain, as well as Greece, all struggling with slow or negative growth and rising debts.
The passage of the measures, a difficult and possibly debilitating feat for a Socialist Party elected on a social welfare platform, ensures that Greece’s foreign lenders will unlock the next installment of $17 billion in aid that the country needs to meet its debt obligations through August.

While the Greek vote was cheered by financial leaders — who had warned of a possible global financial meltdown if the austerity measures had not passed — the approval of the budget-cutting plan by the Greek parliament sparked a third day of riots in the streets of Athens.

PREVIOUSLY:

• June 28: VIDEO: Violent Riots Break Out in Athens as Greek Parliament Faces Key Debt Vote
• June 27: VIDEO: Greek Meltdown?
• June 26: Expecting the Unexpected
• June 25: Euro-Doom Looming?
• May 11: How Not to Fix Your Economy

Comments

About

This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

Subscribe to our feed

Search

Admin

• Log in
• Wordpress
• XHTML