Ethos of Am: Obama Urges Greece to Push Unpopular Reforms to Win "Debt Relief"

Outgoing US President Barack Obama has told Greece to continue with deeply unpopular economic reforms in an effort to win international backing for much needed debt relief to kick-start its economy, Sputnik has been told.


Greece is struggling to implement savage tax and public sector spending reforms as part of its third bailout by its creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — despite widespread protests at the effect the austerity measures are having on the social fabric of the country.

Greece is now on its third bailout caused by the sovereign debt crisis which hit in 2007-8 and is struggling to implement a raft of reforms, including tax increases, major pension reforms and cuts to public spending, which creditors require to put its economy back on a stable footing.

Obama is using his final European tour before handing over to Donald Trump to visit both Greece and Germany in the hope of leaving office with a positive message for Europe. However, any hopes that he would broker a debt relief package — writing off of part of its debts — have been dashed, according to a Greek political commentator.

"President Obama says we should go through the painful reforms and then go for debt relief. In many ways, Europe and Germany are saying the same thing: do the reforms and then we can talk about the debt," Pashos Mandravelis, a journalist who writes for the newspaper Kathimerini, told Sputnik.
[sputniknews.com]
 15/11/16