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The figure to which you refer was an anticipation of the 'troika'. In fact, in 2013 we recorded a downturn of 5.7% and not 8%. Cyprus, once again, made to lie all the alarmist predictions and confirmed the dynamism and creativity of its people. This is the first time a country subject to an international financial assistance program exceeds the objectives that were set for it. We hope that 2014 will be the year of stabilization and in 2015 we will renew with growth. Adapted from the source document.

Despite the two austerity plans implemented by George Papandreou's socialist government, coupled with massive aid from the IMF and the European Union, Greece remains mired in crisis and is struggling to put its finances in order. In this interview with Jean Catsiapis, opposition leader Antonis Samaras blames the party in power for the current situation. His own New Democracy party refuses to support the government's austerity measures, arguing that they are makeshift and destined to failure. Greece's tragedy, explains Antonis Samaras, is that the socialist party Pasok must now correct all the errors that it has committed over the past thirty years. But the necessary reforms can only be implemented by a political party that sees them as compatible with its ideology and that has an electoral base ready to support them. This party, he claims, is New Democracy-a party that is both free-market and socially oriented, which believes in a more competitive Greece that is less state-controlled and bureaucratic. Adapted from the source document.

Few countries have suffered from the global economic crisis as much as Greece. Not only did it feel the full force of the financial earthquake, but it also found itself under attack by international speculators. Today, as the IMF and the European Union prepare to help, the country is licking its wounds and trying to understand how things got so bad. George Papandreou is not the last to ask the question. Elected prime minister in October 2009, the leader of the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (P ASOK) is fiercely critical of the previous center-right New Democracy administration, which he believes is guilty of setting up a system of cronyism and of knowingly underestimating the public debt and budget deficit. But the new head of government is an energetic man. In this exclusive interview, he outlines his strategy for resolving his country's daunting problems. Adapted from the source document.