ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's prime minister met with the leaders of the two other parties supporting his government on Sunday to discuss ?11.5 billion ($14.7 billion) in spending cuts the government would have to impose to win more aid from the nation's creditors.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, leader of conservative New Democracy, and two allies ? socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos and Fotis Kouvelis of the Democratic Left ? have agreed on the need for the 2013-2014 spending cuts. However, Venizelos and Kouvelis have disagreed with the prime minister about how deep those cuts in public sector wages and pensions should be.
The cuts are required for the release of a long-delayed ?31 billion ($39.7 billion) loan installment from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, without which Greece would default on its loans.
Also taking part in the meeting was Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras who had met with representatives of the creditors earlier Sunday.
According to a Finance Ministry official, the creditors objected to alternative measures demanded by Venizelos and Kouvelis, such as canceling some of the cuts because of projected higher revenues from cracking down on tax evasion or making deeper cuts in defense and health spending.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media on the talks, said the creditor representatives called the alternative proposals too vague and demanded specific measures.
"It was a good meeting," said Poul Thomsen, deputy director of the IMF's European Department, after his meeting with Stournaras. Thomsen declined to further discuss those talks.
Stournaras is scheduled to present the finalized spending cuts package to a Eurogroup meeting on Friday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greeces-govt-discusses-spending-cuts-174847523--finance.html
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