Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Greece has approved a plan to cut spending, raise
taxes and sell government-owned assets. The approval
cleared the way for seventeen billion dollars in
loans from the International Monetary Fund and the
European Union. The loans are a share of the
one-hundred-fifty-six-billion-dollar rescue deal
that Greece secured last year.The money will help
the government to operate and pay its debts until
the middle of September. But the austerity plan led
to a two-day general strike in Greece and violent
demonstrations in Athens. Several hundred protesters
and police were injured. Parliament approved the
plan on June twenty-ninth, and agreed to the details
the next day. Prime Minister George Papandreou won
more support than expected for his proposals. He
appealed to parliament to do everything possible to
avoid defaulting on the debts of the birthplace of
democracy. "There is a choice," he said. "We can
remain a Greece which has a huge public sector, or
change to a Greece which has an effective democratic
and productive public sector."Greece is expected to
seek more international help, even though years of
government borrowing led to the crisis. Many
protesters said their government is making decisions
that only serve the interests of wealthy nations.
But other Greeks see the need for austerity. One man
said: "I think the policies are a good step towards
finding common ground with the European Union ... I
don't think any country can operate in isolation
these days, especially a country the size of
Greece."On June twenty-eighth, the International
Monetary Fund chose French Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde as its managing director. Ms.
Lagarde received support from the United States and
European nations as well as Russia, Brazil and
China. The international lender has always been led
by a European, but Ms. Lagarde is the first woman.
She has promised to be a strong voice for developing
countries, especially in Asia and Africa. But
international monetary expert Domenico Lombardi says
being a European "from a key euro area country" will
also help. He says she can pressure other European
finance ministers to take "a more aggressive stance
on the European crisis."For VOA Special English, I'm
Alex Villarreal. For more programs on different
subjects, go to voaspecialenglish.com, where you can
learn English and stay informed every day.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
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