PM says Greece will pay its bills

With the Greek economy in crisis Prime Minister George Papandreou has told euronews his government will meet its debt obligations.

He also pledged major changes to the way the economy is run in order to reduce the massive budget deficit to below three percent of gross domestic product in four years.

Currently it is 12.7 percent of GDP.

Papandreou said: “Greece has great potential. Greece has many comparative advantages. But we are wasting this potential with policies which must change. One of the problems which Greece has is that we have had over the years, unluckily, systemic corruption in the public sector, from the top down to the lower levels which means a lot of loss of money, great inequality and a lack of investment.”

On a visit to Brussels, Papandreou got EU backing for his plans and said Europe is pulling together: “There are other a number of other countries that also have similar problems, maybe for different reasons. We will learn from each other and use the best practices in order to move forward, and Greece becomes a competitive and viable economy.”

The Greeks plan to eliminate two of the five levels of government to cut bureaucracy, corruption and the amount of wasted money.

It would move to a new tax system to counter widespread evasion.

Papandreou also dismissed rumours that Greece could leave the euro zone.

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