THESSALONIKI, Greece, Sept 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Greece’s Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Saturday “audacious reforms” and fiscal
measures to attract foreign investment as the country battles back from an
unprecedented debt crisis.
Thanks to the reforms, Greece war would regain its credibility that would
favour more investment, create new wealth and boost employment, he told the
annual Thessaloniki International Fair.
They included a cut in corporate income tax from 28 percent to 24 percent
and on dividends from 10 percent to five percent, he added.
Mitsotakis also pledged to ease tax rates for low wage earners and
measures to support the country’s large construction sector.
Mitsotakis was elected in July and set a priority of boosting economic
growth and investment.
In August he visited France, Germany and the Netherlands to encourage
investors there to take up the opportunites being offered by his new
conservative government.
Although Greece has begun to recover from a six-year recession and a
nearly decade-long debt crisis, the economy remains fragile.
Emerging from its third straight bailout last year, it has a public debt
of more than 180 percent of gross domestic product, and remains under strict
supervision by its EU and IMF creditors.
They want Greece to pursue economic and fiscal reforms and privatisations
and achieve primary budget surpluses – which exclude government debt interest
payments – worth 3.5 percent of GDP in the coming years.
On Saturday, around 8,000 people rallied in Thessaloniki calling for more
jobs and lower taxes.
In Brussels on Wednesday, outgoing IMF chief Christine Lagarde said she
felt the 3.5 percent level “is excessive and is putting undue pressure on the
recovery of the Greek economy”.