Economy
Greece’s re-elected PM outlines government goals up to 2027
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis signs a document during a swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed members of the government at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Greece, June 27, 2023. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas
ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece’s re-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday pledged his conservative government would “fix the sins of the past” and over the next four years cut taxes, boost wages and pensions, and repay bailout debts earlier than expected.
Mitsotakis, 55, won 158 sets in the 300-seat parliament in a June 25 national election, securing a clear majority to push ahead with his plan in a country which emerged from a huge debt crisis five years ago that rocked the euro zone.
The leader of the centre-right New Democracy party said in his first parliamentary address since the election that his party received a mandate to move fast with reforms.
Mitsotakis pledged to help Greece achieve robust growth, regain this year an investment grade credit rating after 13 years and repay earlier than expected bilateral loans from its first bailout agreement with the euro zone.
He promised to give pensioners a one-off annual bonus again this year, extend measures to shield households from a cost-of-living crisis and increase a tax-exemption threshold by 1,000 euros for households with children from next year.
The premier also said the monthly minimum wage would be raised to 950 euros from 780 euros currently, while social security contributions would be cut by one percentage point. A business tax on the self-employed would be gradually reduced.
“Better days lie ahead,” he told parliament, promising to crack down on tax evasion and to reform the country’s ailing health sector.
The cost of New Democracy’s pre-election programme is estimated at 9 billion euros.
Mitsotakis says Greece, still the euro zone’s most indebted nation, can achieve primary surpluses of around 2% annually, despite the relief measures.
“At the beginning of my new term I’m not promising miracles, just hard work,” he told lawmakers.
Mitsotakis was kicking off a three-day parliamentary process which will conclude with a confidence vote on June 8.
The election was a heavy defeat for Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza, the leftist party which ruled Greece in 2015-2019, at the peak of its debt crisis. Tsipras lost 39 seats and resigned last week.
Fringe parties of the political left and right – including an anti-immigrant party calling themselves the Spartans – got a foothold in parliament.
Analysts have said it was unlikely that far-right parties, which received over 12% of the vote, could define government policy. But they are expected to stir public debate on LGBTQ+ issues, migration and relations with Greece’s historic rival Turkey.
© Reuters. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank will need two to three months to make sure that inflation is steadily declining before taking any decision on interest rate cuts, the bank’s governor Elvira Nabiullina told RBC media on Sunday.
The central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 16% earlier in December, hiking for the fifth consecutive meeting in response to stubborn inflation, and suggested that its tightening cycle was nearly over.
Nabiullina said it was not yet clear when exactly the regulator would start cutting rates, however.
“We really need to make sure that inflation is steadily decreasing, that these are not one-off factors that can affect the rate of price growth in a particular month,” she said.
Nabiullina said the bank was taking into account a wide range of indicators but primarily those that “characterize the stability of inflation”.
“This will take two or three months or more – it depends on how much the wide range of indicators that characterize sustainable inflation declines,” she said.
The bank will next convene to set its benchmark rate on Feb. 16.
The governor also said the bank should have started monetary policy tightening earlier than in July, when it embarked on the rate-hiking cycle.
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Workers walk past an under-construction area with completed office towers in the background, in Shenzhen’s Qianhai new district, Guangdong province, China August 25, 2023. REUTERS/David Kirton/File Photo
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s top planning body said on Saturday it had identified a second batch of public investment projects, including flood control and disaster relief programmes, under a bond issuance and investment plan announced in October to boost the economy.
With the latest tranche, China has now earmarked more than 800 billion yuan of its 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) in additional government bond issuance in the fourth quarter, as it focuses on fiscal steps to shore up the flagging economy.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Saturday it had identified 9,600 projects with planned investment of more than 560 billion yuan.
China’s economy, the world’s second largest, is struggling to regain its footing post-COVID-19 as policymakers grapple with tepid consumer demand, weak exports, falling foreign investment and a deepening real estate crisis.
The 1 trillion yuan in additional bond issuance will widen China’s 2023 budget deficit ratio to around 3.8 percent from 3 percent, the state-run Xinhua news agency has said.
“Construction of the projects will improve China’s flood control system, emergency response mechanism and disaster relief capabilities, and better protect people’s lives and property, so it is very significant,” the NDRC said.
The agency said it will coordinate with other government bodies to make sure that funds are allocated speedily for investment and that high standards of quality are maintained in project construction.
($1 = 7.1315 renminbi)
© Reuters. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank will need two to three months to make sure that inflation is steadily declining before taking any decision on interest rate cuts, the bank’s governor Elvira Nabiullina told RBC media on Sunday.
The central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 16% earlier in December, hiking for the fifth consecutive meeting in response to stubborn inflation, and suggested that its tightening cycle was nearly over.
Nabiullina said it was not yet clear when exactly the regulator would start cutting rates, however.
“We really need to make sure that inflation is steadily decreasing, that these are not one-off factors that can affect the rate of price growth in a particular month,” she said.
Nabiullina said the bank was taking into account a wide range of indicators but primarily those that “characterize the stability of inflation”.
“This will take two or three months or more – it depends on how much the wide range of indicators that characterize sustainable inflation declines,” she said.
The bank will next convene to set its benchmark rate on Feb. 16.
The governor also said the bank should have started monetary policy tightening earlier than in July, when it embarked on the rate-hiking cycle.
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