That’s one of the best jokes I heard over the Easter days. Greek finance minister Yiannis Stournaras claimed, “the worst for Greece is over”. Apparently, he has no idea about the people who keep losing their jobs each and every day and it looks as if last time he walked …
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Greece moves forward: 15,000 lay-offs, minimum wage at €490/month, retroactive property levy
Development is here to stay! Unemployment will be combated, jobless will get a bread loaf and a piece of cheese and the revenues-bringing tax called “emergency property levy” will continue as such and in some cases even retroactive. On Sunday night, Greek government passed a multi-bill paving the way for …
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Greek FinMin speaks of “lower instincts”!?
“What is a lower instinct?” The question shot in my brain upon hearing Greek finance minister Yiannis Stournaras telling main-opposition party leader Alexis Tsipras of left-wing SYRIZA: You are appealing to the lower instincts and tell the people we can stay int the euro without the memorandum. This is populism …
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German FinMin Schauble on Cyprus: confused, absent-minded or just a tricky politician?
We all remember German finance minister Woflgang Schaeuble claiming that Cyprus was not systemically relevant for the euro zone. His slogan was more or less that the collapse of Cyrpus’s banking sector would not affect the eurozone as the impact could not be systemically. Today, Wolfgang Schaueble claimed exactly the opposite: that …
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Greek FinMin on Troika negotiations: “There is work to do, all open”
“There is work to do. Nothing will be sealed until all is settled,” Greek finance minister Yiannis Stournaras told reporters after a meeting with representatives of the Troika on Thursday adding that the two sides will hold meetings every day. “There is absolutely nothing closed. All topics are open,” Stournas …
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Greece’s Council of Systemic Stability holds extraordinary meeting on Cyprus
Greece’s Council of Systemic Stability is holding an extraordinary meeting Thursday evening to deal with the Cyprus issue. Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras, Bank of Greece governor, George Provopoulos, the chairman of capital market, Costas Botopoulos, and representatives from the Greek Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) participate in the meeting. While some …
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Historic decision: Cypriots vote NO to bank deposits tax
With 39 votes against and 19 abstentions from Anastasiades’ ruling party, Cypriots said a historic NO to Eurogroup decision to charge with a levy bank deposits. Upon announcement of the rejecting decision protesters who had gathered outside the Parliament broke in to loud applaud. No one Cypriot MP voted in …
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Cyprus bailout: Greeks do not feel well either… FinMin Stournaras’ statement
The eurogroup decision to violently grab private bank deposits in Cyprus could not but trigger a panic also in Greece. And most probably to the citizens of every economically weak EU country. – My father, 85, came early in the morning shouting, we should withdraw our weak deposit from the …
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Stournaras shocks Greeks: Emergency Property Tax also in 2013
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras shocked Greeks on Thursday night, unofficially announcing that the emergency property tax will be collected also in 2013. “I suggested, the emergency property tax collected through electricity bills will have a milder form,” Stournaras told reporters in Brussels, however he refrained to elaborate how this ‘milder …
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Greece – Troika negotiations: see you in April…
Grey smoke rose on Wednesday from the chimney of the headquarters of Greek government. The meeting between prime minister Antonis Samaras and the Troika representatives did not end in agreement. Main issues of dispute are reductions of the numbers of civil servants (lay-offs), extension of the emergency property tax in …
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Is it true, the Troika complained about the Athens strays & demanded measures?
Are we just about to see austerity measures imposed to Athens strays? Do the Troikans gave up numbers and balance sheets and started to deal with the stray dogs of this city? There are reports in the Greek media, that the Troikans complained to finance minister about the incident on …
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Greek FinMin tells BILD, he can’t enjoy life anymore…
Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stourrnaras picked up German tabloid BILD to recount the dull lifestyle he had to live after he was appointed to the most crucial ministerial post of the debt-ridden country. Bild reporter visited Stournaras in his office in Athens and started right away with a personal question: “He is …
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Greek FinMin considers imposing compulsory property insurance
Greek finance ministry considers to make property insurance against earthquake and floods obligatory. According to daily Kathimerini, the compulsory insurance of property against big natural disasters like earthquake and flood is being considered by the finance ministry as an attempt to forestall the possibility of a widespread economic damage from an …
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Athens: Blinds protest “social euthanasia” and will be waiting for FinMin all day long
Hundreds of blind Greeks gathered outside the Finance Ministry on Tuesday morning and will be standing there until they get an appointment with Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras. They asked an appointment with him, even though the minister is absent. They refused to meet the director of Stournaras’ office saying “We …
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Greek FinMin: No lay-offs in public sector
“We do not talk about lay-offs,” Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras told reporters after a meeting with prime minister Antonis Samaras on Thursday on the dwindling of four ministries. “Will there be lays-offs in the public sector?” a reporter asked. “No. We don’t talk about lay-offs,” Stournaras replied. While the Troika …
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Greek FinMin receives an envelope with a bullet and a threatening notice
An envelope containing a bullet and a threatening notice reached the Greek Finance Ministry. According to Greek media, the enveloped was addressed to the Finance Minister and the name “Yiannis Stournaras” written on the envelope. The enveloped reportedly arrived at the Ministry on Monday morning and was opened at the office of …
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Greek FinMin: “No new taxes on property owners”
While Greece’s economic team is working out the new tax scheme that will allegedly unify all taxes imposed on properties, Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras assured that no additional taxes will burden property owners. Stournaras made his statement on Thursday evening during the prime time news program of private Mega TV. “Property …
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Greek gov’t considers building …”tax prisons”
Advisers to Greek finance ministry seem to never run out of creative ideas: the latest proposal on the table is to create tax prisons for those refusing to pay even a small amount of their debts to the state. As there is not space in the current prisons for additional prisoners, …
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MP Kourakis’ “Church-Tax” proposal sparks new dispute between ND-SYRIZA
Left-wing SYRIZA lawmaker Tasos Kourakis made a ‘revolutionary proposal’: that clerics’ wages should be funded not by the state but by those who declare themselves to be Christian orthodox and thus through a special tax similar in other European countries like Germany. The funding scheme was proposed by Kourakis in …
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Greek FinMin – Tax raising campaing “for the pocket of the other”
Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras admitted in an interview that also he was not exemption to the old Greek tradition: to buy services and goods without asking and/or receiving a receipt. A practice that helped vendors and other professionals to steal from the state the Value Added Tax and declare much lower income …
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