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Greek Parliament Adopts 2013 Budget

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The Greek parliament adopted early on Monday the crisis budget for 2013, needed to unlock another bailout installment from international lenders.

ATHENS, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Greek parliament adopted early on Monday the crisis budget for 2013, needed to unlock another bailout installment from international lenders.

According to BBC, the budget was approved by 167 “yes” votes against 128 “no” votes.

The budget envisages 9.4 billion euros (almost $12 billion) in cuts, affecting mainly pensions and wages of state employees. It forecasts that the country’s GDP will decline by 4.5 percent, worse than previously expected, and the debt will increase to 346 billion euros (over $434 billion).

The highly unpopular draft budget is the final crucial step for securing a new 31.5-billion-euro bailout tranche from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

However, the bailout is unlikely to be allocated within the next few days, due to differences between the lenders.

A crowd of about 13,000, mostly members of the country’s largest trade unions and the leftist Syriza party, gathered outside the parliament on Sunday afternoon to protest against the draft. The protest ended peacefully on Sunday evening.

The country’s major trade unions have announced another protest outside the Greek parliament at about 15:00 GMT on Monday.

 

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