Striking Greek transport workers brought Athens to a standstill Thursday in a new protest against austerity measures imposed by the government to secure international financing for the debt-ridden country.
Public transport workers and taxi drivers walked off their jobs, as well as air traffic controllers and teachers. Some newspapers also reacted angrily to the demands of the country's international creditors that the government impose more spending cuts, with one saying that civil servants and pensioners had been placed on a “sacrificial altar” and another saying it was “a merciless raid” on the country.
An Athens business leader said Greece is being turned into a “poverty house” by the series of budget cuts and tax increases the government has imposed in an attempt to cut its debt.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos called the country's financial plight “extremely critical.” But he said Greece must adhere to its austerity plan in order to secure new funding from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank and avoid a default next month.
The eurozone faces other problems aside from Greece. The financial research group Markit said Thursday business activity in the eurozone contracted this month to a 25-month low, and that further deterioration was likely in the coming months.
But Ireland provided one ray of positive economic news. Like Greece and Portugal, Ireland also needed an international bailout, but Dublin said its national economy expanded by 1.6 percent in the April-to-June period, following a slightly larger expansion in the first three months of the year.
U.S. President Barack Obama has told European leaders he wants them to take forceful and decisive action to confront the eurozone debt problem. A spokesman for the White House said Thursday Mr. Obama spoke with European leaders by phone and on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner conveyed a similar message to European finance ministers meeting last week in Poland.
