Fiscal woes require swift action
The recent decision by the Socialist government to move forward by one year the target date for Greece’s fiscal adjustment to the policy agreed to with its European Union peers should be welcomed, even if it came after pressure from the markets and an unhappy European Commission. Prime Minister George Papandreou’s administration must finally take concrete measures to pull the country out of the fiscal hole into which it has dug itself. It is deeply worrying that continuous speculation over a forthcoming wave of taxes and economic measures has brought the domestic market to a halt. It goes without saying that no one stands to benefit from this spate of rumors – a condition that is not befitting of a supposedly developed Western country. The government of PASOK cannot afford to waste a single day. It must move quickly to restore calm at home and credibility abroad – and this can only be achieved by announcing a set of carefully planned measures to remedy the fiscal woes. There is simply no time for publicity stunts and diddling around.
