–Retransmitting Story Published 15:39 ET Monday
PARIS (MNI) – It is “out of the question” for Greece to restructure
its debt, Prime Minister Georges Papandreou said in a newspaper
interview released late Monday.
“It would be a catastrophe for Greek citizens” in light of the
sacrifices they have made, Papandreou told the French daily Le Figaro.
“And a catastrophe for confidence in Europe and the euro.”
“We will continue in the same direction,” the prime minister
pledged. “We have already contradicted all those who pretended that
Greece could not bring order to its finances. The effort continues.”
Earlier in the day, the Finance Ministry estimated that this year’s
public deficit would be at least 9.4% of GDP, well above the official
target of 8.1%.
The upward revision followed the release of updated figures from
the EU statistics agency Eurostat showing that last year’s shortfall
amounted to 15.4% of GDP, nearly two full percentage points higher than
the previous estimate.
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