Greece declares ‘Great Depression’

Greece is in a “Great Depression” similar to the American one in the 1930s, the country’s prime minister Antonis Samaras has told former US president Bill Clinton.

Samaras was speaking before a team of Greece’s international lenders arrive in Athens to push for further cuts needed for the debt-laden country to qualify for further rescue payments and avoid a chaotic default.

Athens wants to soften the terms of a €130bn bailout agreed last March with the EU and IMF to lessen their impact on an economy that is going through its worst post-war recession.