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Greek state assets to be sold 

March 2011

ATHENS – The Government will draw up a list of state property assets to be sold" in a controversial privatisation program introduced as part of a stinging austerity package after Athens had to seek and EU-IMF bailout last May, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said.

Papaconstantinou said the government planned privatisation sales worth 15 billion euros ($20.63 billion) by 2013, with 50 billion euros worth due by 2015.

This latter target was not enshrined however in an agreed EU economic blueprint adopted to get the country back on its feet.

The 50 billion euros figure has proved highly controversial since it was first announced by an International Monetary Fund official last month following a review of Greek progress under the May rescue package. At that stage, the government's agreed target with the EU-IMF was privatisation proceeds of just seven billion euros by 2013.

The announcement of the increased target caused an uproar in Greece where the austerity program is hugely unpopular, with Papaconstantinou himself accusing the IMF, EU and European Central Bank of overstepping the mark.

After debt-stricken Greece, Ireland was the next eurozone member state to need a bailout late last year as a mountain of debt saw the markets turn against Dublin, preventing it from raising fresh money on the markets.

The Cyprus
 News Agency


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