国际英语新闻：Greece due to return to growth in 2011: EU official

ATHENS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Greek economy is on the right track to return to growth in 2011, making impressive progress on fiscal adjustment and structural reforms over the past six months, said European Commissioner of Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn on Thursday during a visit to Athens.

The eurozone in the mean time faces the threat of obstacles to the path of economic recovery due to the ongoing turbulence in the

financial markets, added Rehn speaking in a press conference at the end of a series of meetings with Greek officials.

"The main challenge today is to contain this turbulence in the financial markets which threatens to harm the economic recovery in the eurozone," he stressed, noting that he sees no prospect of a divided EU in the short future due to economic imbalances.

"No, these scenarios do not sound realistic," he said replying to a question. In order to guarantee a common future of prosperity for current member countries European partners work hard at the moment on the creation of a permanent crisis resolution mechanism, he added.

"We are all on the same boat in Europe. We need a comprehensive system to address such challenges which combines European and national efforts," Rehn stressed.

In regards to the Greek exit plan from the crisis, which was the main subject during Thursday's talks with Greek officials, the EU Commissioner repeatedly expressed admiration on what has been achieved so far and optimism on the final outcome.

Greece faced the danger of default this spring due to a budget deficit that reached 15.4 percent of GDP in 2009. The eurozone member country avoided the default by securing a multi-billion euro rescue package from EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a three-year period, pledging painful austerity measures and reforms.