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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (109298)	12/29/2014 6:04:00 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 217847

Greece To Hold Early National Election After Pres Vote 29-Dec-2014 By Angelika Papamiltiadou As a reference - Greece GDP is around $242 billion EU GDP is around $12,750 billion - therefore Greece even if it contracts another 5% or $12 billion counts as an statistical error. ATHENS (MNI) - Greece appears to be heading towards early national elections after its parliament failed to elect a new President after three rounds of voting in a move that could threaten the country's ongoing bailout. Stavros Dimas, the 73-year-old former European Commissioner and Presidential nominee of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, was rejected by 132 lawmakers in the 300-seat chamber Monday, with only 168 votes in support. Dimas needed at least 180 votes in the third and final ballot in order to be elected. According to Greece's constitution, Parliament must now be dissolved within 10 days and national elections must be called within 40 days. Samaras is expected to chair a cabinet meeting later Monday to ask for his ministers' resignations and set a date for the elections. Government officials commented to journalists that possible election dates are January 25 or February 1. The main General Index on the Athens Stock Exchange fell as much as 10% prior to the vote before the vote and extended losses after Dimas' rejection. Government bonds also plunged, with the benchmark 3-year yield rising past 11%. Germany's benchmark 10-year bunds, meanwhile, touched a record low 0.563% following the vote. The elections will take place amid pressure from Greece's lenders to conclude an assessment review that has been pending since September due to disagreements between the Greek authorities and the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund over issues such as the fiscal gap of 2015 and reforms in the insurance and labour sectors. The Greek government has insisted that there will be no fiscal gap next year and wanted to push unpopular measures in the insurance sector for after the presidential elections, originally set to take place in March. However, Greece's international creditors have said that all commitments must be honoured within the agreed timeframe and calculated a fiscal gap in 2015 of over E1.5 billion which required the definition of new measures. Eurozone finance ministers, in their meeting in December, gave Greece a two month extension in its EU funding programme that was set to expire at the end of 2014. In exchange, the Greek government succumbed to the pressure and submitted its creditors a written commitment that it will comply with all the necessary measures and reforms by the end of February, when the two month extension ends. It is unclear however what will happen, in case radical left party, Syriza, which is currently leading the polls, wins the elections and manages to form a coalition of over 150 seats in the 300 seated government. Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, said it will not comply with the reforms agreed by Samaras's government and will not implement measures that would cut wages and pensions further. --MNI Athens Bureau; email: apapamiltiadou@mni-news.com