The plan for tax relief, focusing on middle incomes, and meeting the pressing need for affordable housing, especially for young people, are the two priorities in the government’s economic policy, ahead of this September’s Thessaloniki International Fair announcements.
The new minister of national economy and finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, has already given a signal he will adhere to fiscal discipline and will not move toward the logic of benefits and is opposed to granting holiday and leave bonuses to civil servants. He believes that priority should be in two directions – i.e. growth and support for the weak, hence the tax breaks and housing programs.
Pierrakakis acknowledges that a young couple on a basic salary looking for housing are under pressure as they may have received increases above inflation, but housing prices have increased even more. Therefore, this category must be supported, as he conveys to his interlocutors.
The current situation favors such prioritization of meeting housing needs, as it coincides with the allocation of European resources in this direction. In the context of the midterm review of cohesion policy programs, the European Commission has highlighted housing as one of the five strategic priorities, and it proposes that member-states redirect the available cohesion resources. In fact, the Commission wants to support housing policy by creating a new tool, from the European Investment Bank with the participation of private banks.
The government, under Deputy Minister of National Economy Nikos Papathanasis, has already formulated a first package of proposals, in view of the revision of the cohesion programs, and has included housing among them. Sources indicate it is planning a program along the lines of “My Home II,” with expanded criteria.
For now, eurozone negotiations concern the budgetary space that will be created by the exclusion of defense spending from the limit on the increase in general budget spending.