“The prime minister will announce tomorrow at the TIF further reductions in taxes and insurance contributions,” said the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis from the Economist’s podium in Thessaloniki.

The minister noted that in 2023 a 9% increase in tax revenues was recorded, “due to the effort in tax evasion and due to development”. He added that the government has implemented a total of about 50 tax reductions (see ENFIA, corporate tax, dividends, tax for families with children, stock market transactions).

Mr. Hatzidakis focused on the fact that Greece is recording the fastest unemployment reduction in Europe: “Within five years, half a million jobs were created.” Developing the direction of the government’s economic policy, he spoke of economic freedom, encouraging creativity and fairness. He emphasized the creation of a fifth pillar in the Greek banking system, through the settlement of the pending matter at Attiki Bank, after it merged with Pankritia Bank.

Following the placement of Mr. Exarchos on the panel on the same issue, Mr. Hatzidakis commented: “If the government did not activate Herakles 3, all the rest would be futility of futility (…) We went to the Parliament with the agreement because there was a whispering and we didn’t want to hide anything. The negotiations were difficult and took many months (…) The governor of the Bank of Greece was saying that if we did not go ahead with this agreement there would be a series of terribly scary consequences for the banking system and the economy (…) JP Morgan, an adviser to HFSF said that there was no other better offer (…) What could the Greek government do? Ignore all this and renege on the deal? In Greece we are used to discussing the obvious”.