Factbox: Austerity measures around the euro zone

(Reuters) - A euro zone debt crisis triggered by Greece has forced European governments to take action to tackle high public debt levels.

Here are details of some austerity measures around the euro zone:

* IRELAND:

-- Ireland on Wednesday set out its four-year plan to make 15 billion euros in savings to bring down its record deficit, a condition for the country to receive an expected 80 billion to 90 billion euros in loans from the IMF and the European Union.

-- Ireland's government had on Sunday accepted the recommendation of its finance minister to seek a bailout from international lenders, a move to shore up its battered banks and secure cheaper state funding.

-- The four-year plan is made up of 10 billion euros in spending reductions and 5 billion euros in tax and revenue-raising measures. Revenue-raising measures will contribute one third of the overall budgetary adjustment.

-- Other measures include savings in social welfare expenditure of 2.8 billion euros by 2014 and cuts to public service staff numbers by 24,750 over 2008 levels, back to levels last seen in 2005.

-- The budget deficit is set to blow out to 32 percent of GDP in 2010 due to the one-off inclusion of a mammoth bill for bailing out Ireland's banks. Excluding the bank bill, the deficit will be 11.7 percent of GDP in 2010 as against a budget 2010 target of 11.6 percent. The deficit will be reduced to 9.1 percent of GDP in 2011, 7.0 percent in 2012, 5.5 percent in 2013 and to 2.8 percent by 2014.

-- Fitch cut Ireland's credit rating last month and consumer morale slumped as the cost of cleaning up its banks hit home, piling pressure on the government to bring forward the 2011 budget, the toughest on record, due on Dec 7.

* GREECE:

-- Greece pledged last week to raise VAT, freeze pensions and cut government waste further in 2011 to meet the terms of an EU/IMF bailout after admitting it would miss a full-year budget deficit target by about 1.5 percentage points. Athens agreed to identify additional fiscal measures for 2012-2014, worth 5 percent of GDP, to be able to cut its budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP by 2014, IMF mission chief for Greece, Poul Thomsen, said.

-- The deficit will shrink by 5.1 billion euros in 2011 to 16.8 billion euros, or 7.4 percent of gross domestic product, back in line with the terms of the bailout deal, it said, after fiscal slippages and a deeper-than-expected recession derailed this year's efforts.

-- The new cuts are bigger than the initially planned 2.2 billion euro deficit reduction targeted in last month's first budget draft.

Some measures revealed last Thursday included:

-- An increase in the lower VAT rates to 13 percent from 11 percent and to 6.5 percent from 5.5 percent, along with a levy on large profitable firms.

-- Cuts in government operating costs and a nominal pension freeze.

* FRANCE:

-- France's Constitutional Council approved President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension bill on November 9, clearing the last hurdle to a reform that will raise the retirement age by two years to stem a huge pension deficit.

-- The law will raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 by 2018, making people work longer for a full pension, and will raise public sector contributions to private sector levels. The reform will also raise the eligible age to receive a full pension to 67 from 65.

-- The budget aims to cut the public deficit to 6 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 from an estimated 7.7 percent in 2010, in the first phase of a plan to trim the shortfall to the EU's 3 percent ceiling in 2013, and 2 percent in 2014.

The budget envisages:

-- Raising the top marginal rate of tax to 41 percent from 40 percent to fund pension reforms.

-- Raising the tax on capital gains by one percentage point.

-- The end of a one-off corporate tax break in 2010 will increase revenues by 5.3 billion euros.

-- The end of fiscal stimulus measures will cut 8.2 billion euros from the deficit.