Rick Steves' Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese amazon.com
Bust: Greece, the Euro and the Sovereign Debt Crisis - By Matthew Lynn amazon.com
Greece's 'Odious' Debt: The Looting of the Hellenic Republic by the Euro, the Political Elite and the Investment Community - By Jason Manolopoulos amazon.com
Understanding the Crisis in Greece: From Boom to Bust - By Theodore Pelagidis amazon.com
The Imminent Crisis: Greek Debt and the Collapse of the European Monetary Union amazon.com
Eyewitness Greece - Athens and the Mainland - 352 Pages
Financial markets and economic growth in Greece, 1986-1999 [An article from: Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money]
Athens Demographics:
The population count for Athens was 10,964,020 in 2001. According to eurostat, in 2008 Greece had a total estimated population of 11,262,000. Of this, some 695,979 are estimated to be non-Greek.
August 4, 2010
IMF / eurozone committee declares Greek efforts a success
Maria Petrakis at Bloomberg on the investigation of Greek progress on the bailout program Papandreou agreed to for Greece to receive the €110 emergency loan program ($145 billion USD). Looks mostly positive, and the next infusion of €9 million euros is expected to happen without delay:
"Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads the group of euro-area finance ministers, said he is “very satisfied” with the deficit reductions Greece is making.
The cuts have been “beyond expectations,” he told reporters in Luxembourg. The euro-area nations “have further wishes as to structural reforms” to be undertaken by the Greek government, he said.
...Doros Constantinou, the chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co., the world’s second-largest bottler of Coke drinks, says the government needs to focus on aiding growth rather than raising taxes when it begins drafting next year’s budget, which targets a shortfall of 7.6 percent.
“If you don’t grow the top line, there’s no future,” Constantinou told analysts in a conference call on July 29. “The government has to come back with some measures that will boost growth.”
Greece’s economy shrank an annual 2.5 percent in the first quarter, with unemployment and consumer confidence both at the worst in 10 years. Even with the contraction, June’s inflation rate reached 5.2 percent, close to a 13-year high and more than three times the euro-region rate, as the tax increases boosted the costs of fuel, alcohol and tobacco. "
The "Troika" presents their findings to the public on Thursday (Reuters new link):
"...the team from the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank is assessing Greek progress in cutting the deficit and pushing labour market and other reforms before releasing the second tranche from the 110 billion programme.
"So far, it seems we are meeting our targets and responding to the obligations, faster than the original timetables," Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos told reporters on Wednesday. "This is what the troika verified during our meeting."
They are expected to present their findings during a news conference on Thursday.
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