By Maria Petrakis and Natalie Weeks March 11 (Bloomberg) — Greece’s unions will shut down hospitals, airports and schools today in the country’s second general strike this year to protest Prime Minister George Papandreou ’s latest round of budget cuts to curb the European Union’s biggest deficit . An air-traffic controllers’ walkout will force the cancellation of flights, including 479 from Athens International Airport , the country’s largest. Bus and subway drivers, doctors, power workers, journalists and teachers will stop work to protest 4.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion) of wage cuts and tax increases that have been praised by investors and the European Union. Policemen and firemen will don their uniforms to join a march to parliament. “The measures taken so far are unjust, demanding sacrifices from workers that aren’t being demanded from the employers, businessmen and bankers that created this crisis,” said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the GSEE union, which represents 2 million workers in the private sector. Today’s 24-hour strike is the latest protest against the government since the announcement of a third package of budget measures last week. On March 5, striking workers shut down transport and tried to storm parliament as lawmakers passed the cuts that Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said will show EU allies and investors that Greece is making good on its deficit pledges. Road Show Papandreou returns to Athens today after visits to Germany, France and the U.S. to underline the government’s efforts to trim the deficit and drum up support for his call to regulate derivatives. He says the securities have deepened the Greek fiscal crisis, driving up borrowing costs for the country. Investors and EU officials have ratcheted up pressure on Greece to do more to ensure it meets its deficit target of 8.7 percent of gross domestic product this year, from 12.7 percent in 2009, as the country sinks deeper into recession. Greece will announce final fourth-quarter GDP today after a preliminary report on Feb. 12 showed the economy contracted 2.6 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier. The Athens benchmark general index has gained 6 percent since the latest measures were announced on March 3, outperforming other western European benchmarks. Bonds have rallied. The yield on the new Greek 10-year benchmark due June 2020 fell 5 basis points yesterday to 6.25 percent, according to EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA prices. The two-year note yield fell 11 basis points to 4.76 percent. Euro Suffers Concerns about Greece’s ability to tame the budget gap prompted speculation that the country would need a bailout and could be forced to abandon the single currency. The euro has declined almost 5 percent this year as Greece’s financial woes raised questions about the strength of monetary union. Greece on Feb. 12 revised down its GDP data for the first three quarters of 2009, with the economy shrinking 2 percent last year compared with a government forecast of a 1.2 percent contraction. Economists say that the tax increases and wage cuts, while necessary, are likely to be a further drag on growth this year, echoing arguments from the labor unions. The Finance Ministry said yesterday that the economy may contract more than 0.8 percent this year, compared with a 0.3 percent contraction forecast in the January deficit plan. Bank Earnings Eurobank and National Bank of Greece SA may report their lowest quarterly profit in at least five years as loan losses mount during the economic slump. Eurobank, the country’s second- largest lender, may say today that fourth-quarter net income fell to 3.7 million euros, according to the average of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Papandreou’s approval rating slipped more than 10 percentage points over the last two months as he unveiled the raft of budget measures, a poll showed on March 9. He still commands the support of a majority of Greeks, with 52 percent having a positive opinion of him, according to the survey by GPO pollsters for Mega Television. Almost 60 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the latest budget cuts and more than 65 percent said the measures were “unfair.” In a Kapa Research poll for To Vima newspaper on March 7, which also showed Papandreou with majority support, 86.9 percent said the measures would provoke social unrest. “The protests, unrest and violence all this time are instigated by those who are attempting to preserve for their own benefit all the ills that resulted in the Greek people being beggars to international markets,” Dimitris Daskalopoulos , head of the Athens-based Federation of Greek industries said in a speech yesterday. “Who are they calling on us to protest against and demand from? Is it maybe against ourselves?” To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Petrakis in Athens at mpetrakis@bloomberg.net ;
Read more here:
Greeks Brace for Protests, National Strike Over Papandreou’s Budget Cuts
