Greece passes austerity programme

Against a backdrop of a two day general strike and accompanying riots, the Greek parliament has voted to pass the austerity package into law, part of the deal that releases further tranches of the bailout funds from the EU central purse.

Greece has been given a further two years to reduce its budget deficit to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by Euro finance officlals. How the EU will meet additional Greek needs of Euro 30bn is not clear and a decision has been delayed on this until November 20th.