ATHENS, Greece
The Greek government will not impose further austerity measures in an effort to raise money, a government spokesman said Thursday.
In an interview with Sky television, Greek government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis said about the taxation laws and salary reductions, "Tightening even more belts of those who cannot pay is a socially unfair and an absurd measure."
Greece must raise funds, both to pay its European creditors, and to provide funds for a government that has nearly run out of cash. Unless European aid arrives, Greece will fail to have funds to run the government by the end of March, the Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said recently.
For now, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said in a television interview Sunday that Greece must raise €6 billion to €8 billion to keep government services operational.
"There are ways to raise money and increase liquidity in order to find money and it’s not by increasing taxation, but on the contrary to facilitate taxpayers owing billions of euros. Increasing taxation makes no sense," Sakellaridis said.
Greek officials will meet soon with Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Secretary-General Angel Gurria, the spokesman said. "We ask the OECD to assist in the better implementation of the reforms that we, as a government, have proposed," he added, referring to the list that Varoufakis sent to Dijsselbloem last week.
However, he stated, "Greece will be the one that will set the agenda of the reforms and their directions, and we ask from OECD to give us their expertise and experience to help in the better implementation of the reforms."
