Greek Finance Minister, Yannis Papathanassiou announced on March 18, stimulus measures to stabilize the country’s fiscal shortfall, which has risen to 3.7% of GDP this year.
The new measures will support struggling low income citizens and will be imposed upon earners of more than EUR60,000 a year, and the country’s public sector. In essence, the package will ‘take from the rich, to feed the poor’.
Under the package, taxpayers declaring over EUR60,000 (USD81,500) earnings for 2007, will be forced to contribute an extra EUR1,000 yearly, whilst those earning over EUR250,000 (USD339,500) annually will pay a flat EUR5,000. According to government statistics the measures will affect around 130,000 taxpayers this year and provide nearly EUR250m for government coffers.
Public sector pay rates will be frozen this year, Papathanassiou added. Protests have been planned by many public sector union bodies in response.
Announcing the changes on March 18, Papathanassiou said: "The decisions we take today are clearly difficult. Our choice is to support lower income groups and drastically reduce state spending. Wealthier citizens must contribute to our effort to exit the crisis; we need to shield the country from the international storm”.
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