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Greece slashes economic growth forecast again in latest reform plan

ATHENS Greece expects its economy to grow at little more than a third of the pace it originally targeted in its 2015 budget, a reform plan drafted by the finance ministry and released on Saturday suggested, raising fresh questions about its bailout.The government forecast economic growth at more than 0.8 percent this year, well below the 1.4 percent it estimated in a list sent to its international lenders in March and far off the 2.9 percent assumed in budget planning late last year. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras left-led government, elected in January on a promise to ease the belt-tightening terms of the bailout, has been locked for months in talks with Greece's official creditors over a list of reforms to unlock funds. The 89-page plan appeared to be a broader outline of initiatives the government plans to take over the long term, rather than a specific list of reforms to secure financial aid immediately from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The government said that lower-than-expected revenues in 2014 and uncertainty over funding had complicated the economic projection. "However, it's estimated that favorable conditions for the Greek economy will be maintained. Indicatively, the GDP rate in 2015 is expected to exceed the 0.8 percent noted in 2014," it said.Greece emerged last year from a deep, austerity-induced recession that shrank its gross domestic product by a quarter over a six-year period, slashing jobs and eroding living standards. The reform plan which was drafted in April outlines major changes such as reinstating collective bargaining, boosting employment, and cracking down on undeclared labor, bureaucracy and corruption. It does not include primary budget surplus estimates or growth projections for the coming years.The European Commission this week slashed its 2015 Greek GDP estimate from 2.5 percent to 0.5 percent because of the uncertainty that has dogged its policy direction since late 2014. Greece's IOBE think-tank revised down its growth forecast this year, predicting 1.0 percent economic expansion, down from 2.3 percent forecast in January. Euro zone finance ministers are expected to assess any progress made in talks between Athens and its lenders on Monday. (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Greece slashes economic growth forecast again in latest reform plan

ATHENS Greece expects its economy to grow at little more than a third of the pace it originally targeted in its 2015 budget, a reform plan ...

With Obama on hand, Nike announces it might make shoes in the U.S. again

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who represent much of deeply liberal Portland, went further in remarks before Obama's speech, calling Nike "a great metaphor for the evolution of the international economy and trade agreements." He pointed to how Nike improved the working conditions at its overseas plants after sweatshop conditions were publicized in the 1990s. But trade opponents say Nike's labor practices, dependent on hundreds of thousands of contract workers making substandard wages, continue to be problematic -- including continued reports of worker abuse in its suppliers' factories. And dissatisfaction with Obama's trade push was evident ahead of and during his visit. Obama arrived in Oregon Thursday evening for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a downtown Portland hotel. As his motorcade pulled in, he was greeted with cheers on one side of the hotel, while on the other, several hundred activists shouted, "Hey hey, ho ho, fast track has got to go." Inside, he briefly mentioned trade to donors, saying that "one of the things that we need to do to put people back to work is make sure that we are accessing the markets of the future." "We’ve got the best workers in the world, the best universities in the world, the most innovative companies in the world, the best science and research in the world," he said. "So we are not afraid of competition. We are concerned if the playing field is not level. And that’s why we've got to have the kinds of enforceable, tough, fair trade deals that are going to make sure that American workers and American businesses aren't locked out of these markets." Outside, Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said in an interview among the protests that Obama's Nike appearance "epitomizes every fear we have about this trade agreement." "If the cost of being No. 1 in the world is at the cost of workers' livelihoods and their standard of living, it's not worth it," he said. In 1998, when criticism of Nike's labor practices was at its peak, Nike founder and Chairman Phil Knight said that returning shoe production to the U.S. would add $100 to the cost of a pair of Nike shoes, which then averaged about $75. "There are only two ways of making shoe production come back to the United States," he said at a National Press Club speech. "Either new advances in automation, which from my viewpoint are a ways away, or establishing tariffs and quotas that dictate that shoes have to be made in the United States." Nike's decision to pursue domestic manufacturing, even on a relative small scale and conditioned on the ratification of a complex trade deal, is a triumph for President Obama, who was reported to have pressed another American corporate titan to do the same with little success. At a 2011 dinner in Silicon Valley, according to a New York Times report, Obama pressed the late Apple chief executive Steve Jobs why iPhones

With Obama on hand, Nike announces it might make shoes in the U.S. again

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who represent much of deeply liberal Portland, went further in remarks before Obama's speech, calling Nike "...