Greek PM set to outline tax cuts, structural reforms

Greece’s prime minister is expected on Saturday to detail tax cuts for companies strained by years of austerity, while also promising pro-business reforms aimed at convincing lenders to ease the nation’s fiscal target from 2021.

Conservative premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected two months ago, replacing his leftist predecessor Alexis Tsipras on pledges to revamp Greece’s economy a year after the end of its third international bailout.

Greece remains under financial surveillance to ensure it meets its fiscal targets, and Mitsotakis says his government is confident of achieving a primary budget surplus — which excludes debt-servicing costs — of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2019 and 2020, as agreed with European lenders.

He hopes, however, that foreign creditors will be persuaded to lower that target to around 2 percent in 2021, after Athens gains credibility by implementing reforms such as modernising and making its state more efficient and cutting down on red tape.

In Saturday’s speech at an annual trade fair in the city of Thessaloniki, Mitsotakis is expected to reiterate that corporate tax will be cut to 24 percent in 2020 from 28 percent currently and to 20 percent in 2021, with taxation on dividends to be halved to 5 percent, government officials said.

He is also expected to announce measures to help ease the tax burden for certain groups of austerity-hit taxpayers and offer incentives to boost the construction sector.