Samaras Rejects Austerity, ?War? With Troika

ATHENS ? In a TV interview hours before envoys from international lenders returned to check the books for progress on reforms, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said Greece is not ?at war? with them but said he not impose more austerity measures. He said there would not be any more pay cuts, tax hikes or slashed pensions although he did not explain how a coming 500 million euros ($674.5 million) in social security doesn't doesn't violate that pledge. Representatives of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) were set for tough talks over lagging reforms in privatization, worker firings, tax collections and a looming gap of as much as 2.9 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in the 2014 budget.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com