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		</div><p>European creditors have pulled a recently announced debt relief package for Greece in protest at subsequent budget spending measures by Athens.</p>
<p>Greek stocks fell sharply on Wednesday and the government&#8217;s borrowing rates jumped higher as investors fretted over a potential flare-up in the country&#8217;s bailout problems and the possibility of early elections in the country.</p>
<p>The main stock market in Athens closed down 3.2% while the yield on the country&#8217;s 10-year bond rose 0.28 percentage point to 7.01% &#8211; above the 7% level that is considered to be unaffordable.</p>
<p>The market moves came after Michel Reijns, the spokesman for the eurozone&#8217;s top official, said in a tweet that recent, unsanctioned actions by the Greek government <i>&#8220;appear to not be in line with our agreements&#8221;.</i></p>
<p>As such, he said there was &#8220;no unanimity&#8221; for implementing the short-term debt measures announced on December 5.</p>
<p>At a meeting of the eurozone&#8217;s 19 finance ministers, Greece&#8217;s creditors offered some immediate debt help to Greece.</p>
<p>They include smoothing some of Greece&#8217;s repayments to prevent debt humps and a waiving of an interest rate increase.</p>
<p>Officials said the measures could chop 20 percentage points off Greece&#8217;s debt burden through to 2060.</p>
<p>Greece&#8217;s debt is worth around 180% of its GDP, a level experts consider unsustainable.</p>
<p>Days after that agreement, however, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, announced that his government would distribute 617 million euro this Christmas to some 1.6 million low-income pensioners, replacing a holiday bonus scrapped by Greece&#8217;s bailout creditors &#8211; and whose reinstatement had been a key electoral pledge by Mr Tsipras&#8217;s Syriza party.</p>
<p>Mr Tsipras also said his government would restore a lower sales tax rate for Aegean Sea islanders who are struggling to cope with mass arrivals of migrants from Turkey.</p>
<p>Taken by surprise by Greece&#8217;s new spending measures, the eurozone creditor nations said that they want more information on whether the costs will affect Greece&#8217;s ability to meet its financial targets.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Statement on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/greece?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#greece</a> <a href="https://t.co/7kmVmf0eQJ">pic.twitter.com/7kmVmf0eQJ</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Michel Reijns (@MichelReijns) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichelReijns/status/809044483945930752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The eurozone&#8217;s strong reaction was given added weight as it came on the eve of a year-end European Union summit where Mr Tsipras is set to discuss the state of his debt-ridden nation with other leaders.</p>
<p>Mr Tsipras defended the spending measures in comments made before the eurozone suspended its debt relief measures.</p>
<p>He said he had &#8220;no doubt&#8221; over their legitimacy.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Everything we do is absolutely within the framework of the (bailout) agreement, which we are observing, and which our partners too must observe,&#8221;</i> he said.</p>
<p>Mr Tsipras noted that Greece has to deal with its economic difficulties at a time when it is also at the front line of the immigration crisis.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;In the name of Europe, the Greek people are making sacrifices, and everyone must show respect for this,&#8221;</i> Mr Tsipras said.</p>
<p>Analysts said the eurozone&#8217;s move puts Mr Tsipras in a tough situation and could pave the way for early elections.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;If Tsipras goes ahead, this would further antagonize the eurozone creditors, putting at risk the promised short-term debt relief,&#8221;</i> said Wolfgango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Intelligence.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;On the other side, giving in to the creditors&#8217; pressure would make Tsipras look amateurish at best, and at worst, further undermine his credibility and standing domestically.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Mr Piccoli said Mr Tsipras <i>&#8220;after overplaying his hand&#8221;</i> could be tempted to <i>&#8220;cut his losses&#8221;</i> by calling early elections before his party loses even more support for adopting more unpopular measures.</p>
<p>Opinion polls show that the centre-right New Democracy party has double-digit leads over Syriza and that it would likely form the next government.</p>
<p>Anti-austerity protests &#8211; which Mr Tsipras&#8217;s Syriza party spearhead while in opposition &#8211; have continued under the left-led government.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, about 80 state hospital workers, who were holding a six-hour work stoppage, protested outside the health ministry against state spending cuts.<br />
They symbolically bricked up the building&#8217;s entrance before marching through the city centre.</p>
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