Greece to get bailout cash, add austerity

Greece struck a ATHENS, GREECE — deal with rescue creditors Tuesday toward getting the bailout cash it needs to avoid another brush with bankruptcy this summer, though it leaves long-suffering Greeks facing years more austerity.

Following months of tough negotiations, the Greek government agreed to make another round of pension cuts in 2019 and commit to new tax increases after the current bailout program ends next year.

In return, creditors will resume loan payouts, and start talks on how to ease the country’s debt burden, which stands at nearly 180 percent of the country’s annual GDP.

The need for an imminent release of bailout funds was becoming increasingly important — Greece is expected to require some 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) to cope with a summer spike in debt repayments.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ left-wing government is set to approve the new cuts in Parliament by mid-May, in time for finance ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro currency to unfreeze the money at a meeting May 22. At that meeting, discussions over how to ease Greece’s debt repayments will commence.

Two years ago when the country was on the cusp of a euro exit — so-called Grexit — Tsipras signed off on the country’s third international bailout. In return for up to 86 billion euros over three years, his government, which was elected on an anti-bailout mandate, agreed to further austerity and reforms. The money is only released after creditors agree that Greece has met its side of the bargain.

Though increasingly unpopular in opinion polls, Tsipras can get the latest agreement through Parliament, but there’s not much room for maneuver as his governing coalition with a nationalist right-wing party only has a majority of three seats in parliament.

Of all the months to face an avocado shortage, May is an especially bad one. Because of a diminished avocado crop in California and Mexico and increased demand for avocados worldwide, restaurateurs and consumers will have to pay as much as twice the usual cost for the fruit — which is going to cut into your enjoyment of that Cinco de Mayo guacamole.

Avocados are “alternate-bearing crops, with large harvests one year and smaller ones the next,” Bloomberg reports. This year’s harvest is the latter, and the already-reduced supply is being stretched thinner by greater demand.

Americans, it seems, can’t get enough avocados. U.S. per capita consumption was only 1.1 pounds in 1989, but rose to 7 pounds by 2014, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. Trends such as avocado toast and the growth of fast-casual Mexican chains such as Chipotle can surely take credit for some of the increase during that time.

According to the Hass Avocado Board, the average sales price for an avocado was 89 cents in January. By March 19, the latest week of data reported, it had risen to $1.25. At a Giant grocery store in Washington, D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood, avocados are selling for $2 each. Bloomberg notes that the wholesale price of a 22-poundbox of Hass avocados — $27.89 — is the highest amount it has ever been since prices started being documented nearly 20 years ago.

At Mexican restaurants, there is reason for alarm. A case of 32 avocados costs “almost double from what we’ve been paying the last couple of months,” with the price rising from $40 to $70, said Alfredo Solis, chef-owner of Mezcalero and El Sol, two Mexican restaurants in Washington.

In the middle of all of this comes Cinco de Mayo, which many Americans commemorate by throwing back margaritas and eating at Mexican restaurants.

Those restaurants, eager to entice new customers, often run specials and discounts. Solis says he’s going to charge $2 for tacos and $4 for guacamole on Friday. He doesn’t expect to make any money that day. “You bring them to the restaurants that day, and they come back,” he said. “I will make money later.”