Greece will save more than six billion euros ($8.3 billion) from
an accord reached by European leaders on the terms and repayment period of its debt rescue, the Greek prime minister said on Saturday."Today we have gained over six billion euros," George Papandreou told reporters in Brussels after protracted brokering at a special summit of the 17 eurozone nations to discuss the debt crisis stalking the monetary union's weaker members.
"The results of our efforts for the past 10 months have been acknowledged," Papandreou said according to a statement released by his office, referring to desperate austerity measures adopted in Greece to slash a runaway public deficit over five times the EU norm.
At the all-night EU meeting, which agreed to boost a debt rescue fund and increase economic policy coordination, Greece's eurozone partners agreed to cut the cost for its bailout package by a full percentage point and extend its repayment to seven-and-a-half years from three years.
The agreements are to be finalised at a full EU summit on March 24-25.
Athens last year took a 110-billion-euro loan rescue from the EU and the International Monetary Fund as it faced insolvency after concerns over the parlous state of its economy pushed its borrowing costs through the roof.
But with investors still sceptical of a recession-hit Greek economy further weakened by successive debt downgrades from credit rating agencies, Athens faced an impossible task to stay abreast of loan payments in coming years.
Papandreou said he had turned down a proposal raised during the talks to make sound fiscal policy a constitutional requirement.
"We ourselves can choose the way in which measures to address our debt and deficits can be ensured in the future," he said.
But he noted that a massive privatisation drive of Greek state assets that has caused controversy at home was "part" of the loan rescue deal agreed with the EU and IMF last year.
There was an outcry in Athens last month when EU and IMF officials called for a Greek state privatisation programme worth 50 billion euros by 2015.
The finance ministry, which had originally approved the plan, later said it planned to muster 15 billion euros by 2013 and 50 billion overall "by 2015 and beyond."
The ministry insists it plans to "exploit" state property, much of which is still uncharted, not sell it.
source: AFP
