Greece

Greece's Socialist government is considering creative means to close its budget gap as tax receipts slump—including steps ranging from seizing the unclaimed assets of the dead to slapping new taxes on carbonated drinks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ahead of a visit by international creditors Monday, the government is scrambling to find €22 billion ($31 billion) in additional spending cuts and tax measures over the next three years, as required under a €110 billion bailout it received from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May.

One in two leading businesses in recession-hit Greece will need to refinance their loans or debt obligations over the coming year, research by auditors Ernst & Young showed on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported. The study found that 48% of Greek firms will have to raise new loans amid deteriorating financial conditions in the country, which is itself laboring under a public debt of more than EUR300 billion ($420 billion). Some 34% of respondents said that access to funding will not be a problem for their organizations in the next 12 months.

Greece raised €1.625 billion ($2.28 billion) in an auction of treasury bills Tuesday, though the higher interest rate it has to pay showed investor unease a day after the country's credit rating was downgraded sharply, the Associated Press reported. In return for selling the 26-week bills, Greece had to pay an interest rate of 4.75 percent, the Public Debt Management Agency said. The rate was up from the 4.64 percent it had to pay in a similar auction last month, but lower than the 4.90 percent demanded in January.

Greece launched a tirade against U.S. credit ratings agencies Monday after Moody's downgraded its debt grade further below junk status, warning the bailed-out euro country might have to default on its massive borrowings, the Associated Press reported. The agency slashed its rating by three notches to B1 from Ba1 and warned it may cut again if the government's commitment to austerity wanes or international creditors become less willing to support it - Greece was saved from bankruptcy last May after accepting a €110 billion ($154 billion) bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

Does Europe need a default? As euro-zone leaders work to defuse the dangerous debt crisis that is raging at their periphery, more and more observers seem to believe that part of the solution should be a major cut in the face-value of outstanding Greek and possibly Irish government bonds, The Wall Street Journal reported in a commentary.

Violent clashes between protesters and the police broke out here in the capital on Wednesday, as the two main labor unions staged the first general strike of the year against the government’s austerity drive, paralyzing public services and disrupting transportation, the International Herald Tribune reported. Demonstrators estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 protesters turned out at two rallies that converged outside Parliament in the early afternoon. The strike on Wednesday shut down schools and hospitals and all government offices.

An indignant Greece slammed EU and International Monetary Fund inspectors overseeing its efforts to reform its debt-crippled economy, accusing them Saturday of overstepping their role and interfering in Greece's internal affairs, the Associated Press reported. In an unusually harshly worded, pre-dawn statement, government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis called the behavior of the inspectors at a Friday news conference unacceptable. "We have needs, but we also have limits. And we do not negotiate the limits of our dignity with anyone," Petalotis said.

Greece was in talks with other European countries in an effort to lower interest rates on a rescue loan package worth a total euro110 billion ($146 billion), the finance minister said Wednesday. Greece has already received support from countries using the euro and the International Monetary Fund for its effort to extend the repayment of the rescue loans. A final deal has yet to be worked out, the Associated Press reported.

Greece's prime minister sought to allay investor concerns over the country's staggering debt burden Thursday, saying the country isn't in talks to restructure government debt held by private bondholders and will return to the bond markets this year if conditions allow. Speaking in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Prime Minister George Papandreou said Greece's program of tough structural reforms and harsh fiscal austerity -- as demanded by its international lenders -- would ensure that Athens could repay its private creditors. "We have no such [restructuring] talks going on.

Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA’s bondholder-led plan to restructure the company by injecting 420 million euros ($555 million) and writing off debt in exchange for control of the company was approved by a London court, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. Under the plan by senior secured floating-rate noteholders, Wind Hellas’s 250 million-euro revolving credit line would be repaid in full, while the company’s senior secured notes and 355 million euros of subordinated bonds will be written off, according to a statement Oct. 18.