Former SYRIZA minister Giorgos Stathakis has signaled his departure from the main opposition party, leveling accusations against the new party leader Stefanos Kasselakis and his close circle of advisors for their “anti-leftist hysteria.” In an op-ed published on the News24/7 website on Wednesday, titled “Bidding farewell to a SYRIZA that …
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“Expensive heating oil protects the environment,” says ex FinMin Tsakalotos
“Expensive heating oil helps protect the environment,” SYRIZA MP and former Finance Minister, Euclid Tsakalotos said on Tuesday. Tsakalotos was trying to justify the Extra Consumption Fee on heating oil imposed by the SYRIZa government in 2015. A truly awkward effort to justify the unjustifiable by a left-wing lawmaker who …
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IMF’s Thomsen “suffers from short-time memory loss,” says Tsakalotos
Head of IMF’s Europe department “Poul Thomsen suffers from short-time memory loss,” said Syriza MP and former finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos. He was commenting on Thomsen’s claims that the Greek government agreed to high primary surpluses targets during the negotiations in the first half of 2015. Greeks accepted the high …
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Tsakalotos on IMF candidacy: “My hands are tied”
Former finance minister and high-ranking member of left-wing SYRIZa, Euclid Tsakalotos, commented on media reports that his name was on the list of those to potentially replace Christine Lagarde as Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund. In a post on Facebook, Tsakalotos wrote that he had to consult the …
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Tsakalotos among candidates to replace Lagarde at IMF
A leftist economist in the chair of the International Monetary Fund that surpresses and rains the poor and imposes strict austerity measures? Former SYRIZA finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos is listed among the candidates to replace Christine Lagarde as Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund. As Lagarde is to leave …
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FinMin Tsakalotos: Regling speaks “nonsense”, if he were my student….
Klaus Regling is speaking “nonsense” said Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos adding that if the head of the European Stability Mechanism were his student, he would be flunked. In an interview with Open TV on Thursday, Tsakalotos referred among others to Regling’s claim that the time when Yanis Varoufakis was …
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“Shrinking of the middle class cannot be tackled with tax cuts only,” says FinMin Tsakalotos
The shrinking of the middle class is not only tackled by tax cuts but by a combination of policies that, along with tax cuts, place the social problem at the center of the strategy, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Saturday. “The middle class wants better jobs, a stable …
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Lagarde – Tsakalotos talk about IMF loans early repayment, Gavra’s film
Early repayment of IMF loans was not the only topic between Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and managing director of the international Fund Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the spring meeting of the Fund and the World Bank. It was the Greek cinema and most likely the film “Adults …
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IMF’s Lagarde positive on early loans repayment by Greece
Managing Director of International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde is positive to the idea that Greece repays earlier part of its loans, state broadcaster ERT TV reported on Saturday following a meeting between Lagarde and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in Washington. the news comes just hours after reuters reported that Greece …
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FinMin Tsakalotos confirms early repayment to IMF; Greece to use ‘cash buffer’
Greece’s Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos confirmed that Greece is planning to repay the loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier than their maturity. Speaking to Radio Thessaloniki 94.5 FM on Tuesday Tsakalotos noted that the IMF loans are “very expensive debt”. He pointed out that approximately 3.5-4.0 billion euros …
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No extra Easter bonus for civil servants and public sector pensioners
Active and retired civil servants cheered when they heard deputy Labor Minister Tassos Petropoulos announcing that they will receive extra money as a one-off Easter bonus. But their joy was of short duration. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos cut their winfs in zero time. Speaking on news247 FM, Petropoulos said that …
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Tsakalotos admits “two strategic mistakes” in 2015 negotiations with EU creditors
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos admitted that the Tsipras government made two strategic mistakes during the negotiations with the European lenders in the first half of 2016. He said that the government considered “the threat of Grexit as a means of pressure towards creditors. However, at that time the German …
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Tsakalotos says Greece plans to return to markets in 2019 to buy IMF or ECB debt
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos unfolded the government plans how to deal with red loans and how the country will return to the markets. In an interview with radio News24/7 on Tuesday, Tsakalotos said that Greece negotiated hard with the country’s lenders to secure a buffer of 25 billion euros …
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Tsakalotos: Italy volatility has made it harder for Greece to sell bonds
Volatility in Italian government debt has made it harder for Greece to return to bond markets, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told Reuters, but said he is comfortable with waiting for the right time to raise funds. A recent selloff in Italian government debt has pushed up the borrowing costs …
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Pension cuts: IMF refers Greece to its “European partners”
The International Monetary Fund referred Greece to Brussels, when Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos presented the government’s arguments that cutting pensions was not a structural measure. During the meeting with IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the head of the Fund’s European department Poul Thomsen in Bali, Tsakalotos argued that there …
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“Greece wants to repay loans to ECB and IMF before maturity,” Tsakalotos says
Greece wants to repay loans to the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank before they mature, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Tuesday. The aim is to reduce debt serving cost, he added. The ECB holds Greek debt worth around 12 billion euros with an average maturity of …
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Tsakalotos assures investors pensioners over 70 will start dying as of 2020 (video)
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos ‘promised’ investors that Greek pensioners will be dead soon and that they will not have to worry about the sustainability of the pensions system. Addressing the 13th Greek Annual Road Show in London, Tsakalotos argued that pensioners who are over 70 years old now, will have …
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Capital controls: Greece to lift cash withdrawal cap, says Tsakalotos
Greece plans to further loosen capital controls and to lift restrictions with regards to cash withdrawals and opening bank accounts. This is what Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in an interview on Saturday. “We will have new easing [of capital controls] very soon,” Tsakalotos told newspaper Naftemporiki , however, he …
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Turkey’s economy won’t affect Greece’s Clean Exit, says FinMin Tsakalotos
The Greek government is watching closely developments in neighboring Turkey, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in statements to news website newpost.gr on Tuesday, but they are not affecting Greece’s upcoming completion of the adjustment program on August 20. Tsakalotos’ full statement as posted on newpost. gr is as follows: “The …
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Tsakalotos optimistic Greece’s fiscal performance will lead to taxes cuts
Optimistic about the exit from the bailout program in August and the fiscal performance of the country, Greek Finance Minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, did not rule out that the long-term fiscal targets could be reviewed or that a further debt relief could be achieved with the country’s creditors. Confident that Greece …
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