This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Greece has approved a plan to cut spending, raise taxes and sell government-owned assets. The approval cleared the way for seventeen billion dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The loans are a share of the one-hundred-fifty-six-billion-dollar rescue deal that Greece secured last year.The money will help the government to operate and pay its debts until the middle of September. But the austerity plan led to a two-day general strike in Greece and violent demonstrations in Athens. Several hundred protesters and police were injured. Parliament approved the plan on June twenty-ninth, and agreed to the details the next day. Prime Minister George Papandreou won more support than expected for his proposals. He appealed to parliament to do everything possible to avoid defaulting on the debts of the birthplace of democracy. “There is a choice,” he said. “We can remain a Greece which has a huge public sector, or change to a Greece which has an effective democratic and productive public sector.”Greece is expected to seek more international help, even though years of government borrowing led to the crisis. Many protesters said their government is making decisions that only serve the interests of wealthy nations. But other Greeks see the need for austerity. One man said: “I think the policies are a good step towards finding common ground with the European Union …
