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Antiquities return prompts calls for marbles

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Greece. Antiquities. Parthenon Marbles.

Greek Minister of Culture, Antonis Samaras, with antiquities that were returned to Greece. Photo: EUROKINISSI

25 May 2009

Greece unveiled a 1.3 billion euro ($1.8 billion) support plan last week to help small businesses badly affected by the economic downturn.

The funding will subsidise investments by small businesses in manufacturing, tourism and commerce.

Greece’s economy, about 2.5 percent of the euro zone, may slip into recession this year after years of robust growth.

“We are targeting a minimum of 17,000 firms that may benefit ... as the world economic crisis also affects our economy,” Finance Minister Yannis Papathanassiou said.

The package will be launched in September and run for 18 months, offering subsidies of up to 65 percent or 300,000 euros to small businesses to upgrade equipment and buildings.

Greece has limited room for fiscal stimulus as it scrambles to contain its budget deficit which hit five percent of GDP last year.

The European Commission has asked Greek authorities to correct the fiscal shortfall to three percent of GDP by 2010.

Recent commission forecasts expects the economy will contract by 0.9 percent this year.

The governor of the Greek central bank, George Provopoulos, said last week Greece must dump its consumption-driven growth model and adopt a new long-term strategy to correct its and current account deficits and high public debt.

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