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Greek FinMin doesn’t expect Tax and VAT increases….
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy
What do you think when a Finance Minister of a debt-driven country says, he didn’t expect further increases on taxes or VAT? Most likely you think that hikes will happen but not likely in the very-very near future, i.e. this month… 
The 2010 fiscal austerity programme will continue for the next three years, with emphasis on lowering state spending, broadening the tax base and cracking down on tax evasion, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in an interview published by the Athens-based newspaper “Eleftherotypia” on Sunday.
The finance minister said he did not expect any further increases in either overall taxes or VAT and that the higher state revenues needed would be collected by combating tax dodging and by cutting back spending in order to avoid burdening wage-earners and pensioners.
Papaconstantinou appeared confident that Greece would manage to avoid restructuring its debt. He said the country would be able to do this if it could create and sustain primary surpluses of around 5-6 percent for several years and also make major structural reforms and changes that would raise the real growth rate of the economy to above 2 percent, in combination with an extension of the repayment period for the 110 billion euro EU-IMF loan and “more favourable funding terms in the framework of new European decisions that will be taken.”
The minister said that Greece hoped to return to borrowing from financial markets within the year, starting with a ‘diaspora bond’ that would be offered to Greek expatriates living abroad and have an interest rate smaller than the current market rate.
source: Athens News Agency
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