Eurozone ministers warn Greece of additional austerity measures

The warning was issued after the monthly meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

"If we were to find that a number of risks had materialized that would prevent Greece (from) meeting the targets that it has set for itself and that we have set for them, then we would suggest additional measures," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the finance ministers' meeting.

Greece has promised to present a report to the European Commission on March 16 about its measures taken to cut deficits. If its current debt reduction plan does not work fast enough, additional measures would have to be imposed on Greece, Juncker added.

The Luxembourg prime minister told the media that additional measures, to be adopted with a simple majority vote by eurozone finance ministers, would require Greece to further cut spending and to increase taxation for more revenues.

Greece will be excluded from the voting under the European Union (EU) rules.

Greece has promised to cut its deficit by 4 percentage points this year, after its deficit reached a staggering 12.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009. It also aims to bring the deficit to below the EU ceiling of 3 percent of GDP in 2012; Kazinform cites Xinhua.

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