Finance

Finance

Greek lawmakers approve 2012 austerity budget

07 December 2011 07:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Greece’s lawmakers overwhelmingly approved next year’s austerity budget early Wednesday, extending tough spending cuts that have already left Greeks struggling as the country tries to slash its vast debts and tame a severe recession, APA reports citing Associated Press.

"This is a difficult budget ... with ambitious targets," Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told lawmakers just before the after-midnight vote. "But we must achieve our targets and implement the measures that are foreseen."

"The financial crisis in our country is not a passing storm," Papademos warned. "Given the size of the problems, our national effort will not be completed in 2012. It will take many years, and will require the efforts and insistence of several governments."

Greece’s acute debt woes have triggered a Europe-wide crisis and the country is surviving on international rescue loans, released on condition it implements deeply resented cutbacks. The crisis has even prompted talk of the country being forced out of the eurozone â€” or even the European Union â€” both of which Papademos insisted were out of the question.