The Minister of Finance Yannis Stournaras speaking in the annual conference of Hellenic Federation of Enterprises sent a clear message saying that that in order to negotiate with Troika and take decisions on relief measures, Greece has to achieve the goals set by the program and can not be taken directly under the pressure of the election results.

As he mentioned, from now on there are two basic priorities for the country:

– The first priority is the final solution of the issue of Greek debt sustainability. That decision, as reported in the press release of the Eurogroup on May 5, will be taken as part of the periodic inspection of the Greek economy in the fall.

Mr. Stournaras warned that it would be difficult to negotiate with European partners now that the parties that oppose to the principles of European solidarity and reciprocity recorded a significant rise.

– The second priority is to give a breath of life to the economy and society, with key decisions on Greek debt, which would free up resources.

As he admitted “many of the measures were taken under the pressure of the absolute financial constraints experienced by the country in order to avoid the inevitable. But today we have greater chances.”

Mr. Stournaras mentioned also the achievements succeeded by our country over the last two years such as achieving a primary surplus.

Regarding the relief measures, he stated that the government has already taken the first targeted measures, as a result of the better than expected financial performance, including:

– The distribution of the social dividend

– The statutory reduction of social security for employers and employees by 3.9 % as of July 1

– The statutory reduction of many taxes for third parties imposed to businesses and consumers

– Avoiding the 0.5 % levy over the total revenue of the business which was included in other agreements with the European partners

– The option granted to thousands of companies, under certain conditions, not to prepay VAT which they have not received yet

– The significant reduction of the amount of outstanding liabilities of the public

– Increase in tax refunds

– Tripling of the amount of VAT refund for businesses

– VAT rate reduction in mass catering domain