BBC News with David Legge
One of the giants of American industry, General Motors, has
resume
d trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, 18 months after being rescued from bankruptcy by the US and Canadian governments. The two countries pumped $50bn into the firm, and the initial share offering is expected to reduce the US government's stake in the company by half. Neville Isdell is one of GM's board members.
"This is huge. This is the whole new General Motors.
This is a 102-year-old company that sadly went through a bankruptcy process that is being reborn and reborn based on what is important and that is the designing, the building and the selling of the world's best cars."
Greece has
unveil
ed deep new spending cuts aimed at reducing its budget deficit by almost $7bn to
comply with
the terms of a European Union and IMF bailout. Forty per cent of the projected savings will come from the national health service. The Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou insisted the latest cuts were vital for long-term growth.
"We all understand that the battle has not been won yet, but we are at a better stage to focus our attention on the bigger problems because obviously the problem is not low-income pensions; the problem is the wasteful state, the public corporations, how to fight tax evasion and how all these are at the base of creating
viable
growth in the country."