In the year 2010 when Greece ran into extreme financial crisis, the IMF, the European Central Bank and the EU Commission bailed out Greece by lending $264 billion dollars. The bailout came with its set of conditions, austerity terms, requiring deep budget cuts and steep tax increases for Greece. But, instead of revival, the bailout has not helped boost the economy back to life. Statistics show that the economy has shrunk and the unemployment rate has gone up by 25 %.
It comes as no surprise, as the bailout money mainly goes repaying Greece’s international debts, rather than boosting its own economy. The government is unable to begin to pay up unless a recovery takes over.
In light of the above pressing circumstances, Greece had been locked in negotiations with its creditors for months when the Greek government unexpectedly called a referendum on the bailout terms being offered to them. The Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is working out a bailout deal that will be reviewed by the IMF, EU Commission as well as the European central bank.
Once a bailout deal is finalised with EU, in a bid to pay back its creditors, the Greek government is considering a proposal to sell the Government’s 3/4th stake in tow of their key ports of Pireaus and Thessaloniki. Moller-Maersk owned AMP terminals has shown keen interest in buying the ports. The final bidding dates for the same is likely to be announced by October 2015.
