A/HRC/25/50/Add.1 short-term maturities, is significant. Government annual external debt payments are estimated at €23 billion (29 per cent of revenue and 42 per cent of exports).39 39. From a human rights viewpoint, the IMF debt sustainability assessment has limitations. It is too narrowly focused on debt repayment capacity. As the Independent Expert has stressed on previous occasions, debt sustainability analyses should include an evaluation of the level of debt that a country can carry without undermining its capacity to fulfil its human rights obligations.40 V. Impact of the adjustment programme on human rights 40. The economic and social costs of the adjustment programme have been substantial.41 The economy remains in recession while output has fallen by nearly 25 per cent since 2007.42 41. The measures implemented as part of adjustment, in particular the job cuts, and cuts to wages and pensions, have had the overall effect of compromising the living standards of the population and the enjoyment of human rights. According to the National Ombudsman, “the drastic adjustments imposed on the Greek economy and society as a whole have had dramatic consequences on citizens, while vulnerable groups increase and multiply”.43 In a similar vein, the National Human Rights Commission observed a “rapid deterioration in living standards coupled with the dismantling of the welfare State and the adoption of measures incompatible with social justice, which are undermining social cohesion and democracy”.44 42. The burden of adjustment does not appear to be shared fairly,45 and the impact has been particularly severe for the most vulnerable sectors of the population: the poor, older persons, pensioners, women, children, people with disabilities and immigrants. 43. Owing to space limitations, the Independent Expert will only highlight the impact of the adjustment programme on the rights to work, social security, health, education and adequate housing, as well as its contribution to poverty and social exclusion. A. Work 44. One of the most profound consequences of the adjustment programme has been the exponential rise in unemployment. Under the programme, the Government committed to cut 150,000 public sector jobs (about 22 per cent of public employment) by 2015. Some 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 12 Jubilee Debt Campaign, Life and debt (see footnote 15), p. 11. See A/HRC/23/37, para. 41 and A/65/260, para. 33. IMF Country Report 13/241 (see footnote 32), p. 4. Although IMF is projecting economic growth for 2014, this is due to a €7.5 billion (2.7 per cent of GDP) stimulus programme involving highway construction approved by the Parliament of Greece in December 2013, not because of the adjustment programme. Most of the financing will come from European Union grants, and will not therefore add to State debt. Greek Ombudsman, 2011 Annual Report, English summary, (available from www.synigoros.gr/resources/ee2011-english_translation-final.pdf), p. 4. National Commission for Human Rights, Annual Report 2011 (available from http://www.rwi.lu.se/NHRIDB/Europe/Greece/NationalCommissionforHumanRightsAnnualReport20 11.pdf), pp. 71-72. See IMF, Country Report No. 13/155 (available from www.imf.org/external/country/GRC/index.htm?type=42), p. 18.