Greek unemployment hits record high of 25.1 percent

PanARMENIAN.Net - Unemployment in Greece hit a record high of 25.1 percent in July as the country's financial crisis continues to exact its heavy toll, official figures showed Thursday, Oct 11. And all indications are that unemployment in Greece will be heading higher for some to come, according to The Associated Press.

The country is widely-predicted to enter a sixth year of a recession, that's already seen economic output slump by a quarter and youth unemployment push way above 50 percent.

"This is a very dramatic result of the recession," said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of research at Greece's IOBE economic research foundation. Tsakanikas added that he does not expect employment to pick up significantly for at least a year.

After losing access to international money markets and nearly defaulting on its mountain of debt, Greece has survived on international bailouts since May 2010.

Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras will hold new talks Thursday evening with representatives of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. The so-called troika has to sign off the package for the release of the funds.

Some evidence emerged Thursday that the government's strategy is working on one front, at least. Finance Ministry figures showed that the deficit-busting effort is on track despite lower-than-anticipated revenues.

The ministry said the January-September deficit was €12.64 billion, lower than the €13.5 billion target. Although revenues were €1.3 billion off target, spending was €2.2 billion less than budgeted.