90 seconds at 9am: Greek unveils budget cuts worth 10% of GDP; markets rally

Watch on our video page here Watch on YouTube here Bernard Hickey details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9am in association with the BNZ, including news that Greece has finally announced big budget cuts to keep its European partners happy and to try to avoid a financial meltdown in the Eurozone. Greece will cut entitlements for public sector workers by 12%. It will cut holiday bonuses by 30% and will raise the Greek GST rate from 19% to 20%. Altogether, these budget reductions represent the equivalentof 10% of GDP worth of cuts inside 2 years. Financial markets welcomed the news. Stocks and bonds rallied. But Greece may struggle to follow through. The political opposition is very strong with up to 2 million workers already on strike. A national strike is planned for March 16. Everyone in Europe is watching this. The hope is it will avoid a domino effect througout Europe as Spain, Portugal Italy and even the UK are seen as next to fall. A european zone collapse would affect New Zealand given its our 2nd biggest export buyer.