EU inspectors demanded more Greek measures

EU inspectors told Greece during a visit last week that it will miss its deficit-cutting targets and needs to take more measures, economy minister Louka Katseli said on Sunday.                                            
"They told us that our GDP forecast was not right, that recession will be deeper, and therefore we must make more spending cuts," Katseli told state Greek TV NET.                                           

"Their second argument was that markets were not convinced, and therefore more measures are needed to convince them."

Katseli said the European Union team, which inspected Greece's efforts to reduce a 12.7% of GDP deficit, ahead of a mid-March EU deadline, had been convinced on at least one issue, which was the absorption of EU funds.                                           

Government officials said last week EU inspectors had asked for additional measures of €4.8 billion, as a result of a deeper recession, lower absorbtion of EU funds, higher interest on debt and over-ambitious proceeds from battling tax evasion.