ATHENS: Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Monday that if primary surplus targets beyond 2018 were lowered to 2.5 percent of GDP from 3.5 percent now, Athens would be able to cut taxes in an effort to boost economic competitiveness.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said a week ago that Greece's problem is not its debt but competitiveness. "Some countries say that Greece's biggest issue is not its debt but competitiveness," Tsakalotos told a news conference. "My proposal is the following. Let's agree to lower the primary budget surplus targets to 2.5 percent from 3.5 percent.
The Greek government would commit that the full one percentage point difference will be allocated to tax relief for medium-sized companies to boost competitiveness," he said. Tsakalotos, who is leading negotiations with the country's European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders, said that concluding the country's second bailout review was crucial for Greece's economic recovery.
"Without concluding the second review there will not be a solution on debt and without this solution we won't be able to be included in quantitative easing," he said.
"Without quantitative easing we won't be able to tap markets in late 2017, early 2018."
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