Simonyte: act now or we will suffer

Posted by editor on 6/21/10 • Categorized as Business, Economy Watch, Finance • Print This Post •

If Lithuania doesn’t act fast and decisively on budgetary measures, it could be the next Greece the finance minister warned.”Doing nothing or trying to sell unrealistic plans could mean the same as it has meant for Greece — higher cost of saving the country’s finances,” Minister of Finance Ingrida Simonyte told the Seimas upon presenting the new budget with its austerity measures.

The parliament is reviewing the government’s austerity measures, which include raising the retirement age and cutting maternity benefits in half from current levels. There would also be a freeze put on public sector wages.

The new austerity measures should be approved in July, the government says.

The government is working hard to cut expenditures because it wants to adopt the euro by 2014. To do that it needs to keep cutting its budget deficit until it is under 3 percent.