After a five-day debate, the parliament of Greece on Sunday approved the country's budget for 2016.
The budget projects a 0.7 percent fall in GDP, less than the 1.3 percent contraction predicted earlier, for 2016, while the government expects zero growth in gross domestic product in 2015, reports the Wall Street Journal.
"Nobody can cheer for this tough budget," said Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, according to NDTV.
"Behind the (budget's) numbers anybody can see the agonizing effort to support the working classes," said Alexis Tsipras, describing the budget as "a difficult exercise," reports Yahoo! News.
The budget predicts public debt to reach 187.8 percent of GDP, or €327.6 billion, in 2016, up from 180.2 percent and €316.5 billion this year. With an unemployment rate of 25.4 percent on average for 2015, with no change in 2016, it was no surprise when the interim head of the New Democracy right-wing main opposition party Yiannis Plakiotakis called the budget "anti-growth" and "socially unfair," reports NDTV.
