Despite austerity, Greece to miss newest deficit reduction targets

Greece will miss a deficit target set just months ago in a massive bailout package, according to government draft budget figures released on Sunday, showing that drastic steps taken to avert bankruptcy may not be enough.

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The dire forecasts came while inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, EU and European Central Bank, known as the troika, were in Athens scouring the country’s books to decide whether to approve a loan tranche. Without that installment, Greece would run out of cash as soon as this month…

In Sunday’s documents, GDP is predicted to fall by 5.5 percent this year. Government sources said it was expected to shrink 2-2.5 percent next year.

Those numbers are in line with recent forecasts by the IMF, but much worse than predictions used to calculate a 109 billion euro ($146 billion) bailout in July, which anticipated Greece posting 0.6 percent growth next year.

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