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Greek PM Says 2020 Budget Will Respect Fiscal Targets

Reuters

   ATHENS -- Greece will submit a 2020 budgetlater this year that will
   fully respect the fiscal targetsagreed upon with its lenders, newly
   elected Prime Minister KyriakosMitsotakis said Saturday.

   Outlining his main policies after a landslide victory in aJuly 7
   election, Mitsotakis told Greek lawmakers that the budgetwould not put
   fiscal targets for 2019 and 2020 at risk.

   Greece emerged from economic adjustment programs overseenby its lenders
   last August but still needs to meet fiscaltargets, including a primary
   budget surplus -- which excludesinterest payments on its debt -- of 3.5
   percent of annualeconomic output up to 2022, which many consider
   unrealistic.

   "In the draft budget for 2020, the given fiscal balance isnot disrupted
   and the primary surplus targets for the years 2019and 2020, agreed by
   the previous government, are not disputed,"Mitsotakis said.

   Mitsotakis, who takes over from former leftist Prime Minister Alexis
   Tsipras, was elected on a pledge to cut taxesand speed up investments
   to spur growth in a country that losta quarter of its output during the
   Greek debt crisis.

   He said that planned tax cuts and bold reforms of theeconomy and public
   administration would lead to higher growthand help Greece persuade its
   lenders to lower fiscal targetsafter 2020.

   "In 2020 '¦ we will have the ability to seek the lowering ofprimary
   surpluses to more realistic levels," Mitsotakis said.

   Property tax cut

   Corporate tax will be cut to 24% on 2019 profit from 28%currently and
   taxation on dividends will be halved to 5 percent,he said, adding that
   a highly unpopular property tax that wasintroduced in 2012 at the
   height of the crisis would be cut by anaverage 22% this year.

   One urgent matter facing Mitsotakis' cabinet is the shoringup of key
   state-controlled utility Public Power Corp. (PPC),which is saddled with
   more than 2.4 billion euros of arrearsfrom bills left unpaid during the
   debt crisis.

   Mitsotakis said that PPC, which is 51% owned by the state,would be
   revamped through the privatization of its networks andidentification of
   habitual defaulters, before a strategicinvestor was sought for the
   utility.

   The new conservative government, which investors consider tobe more
   market friendly than its predecessor, also plans torelaunch the sale
   ofHelleneicPetroleum, thecountry's biggest oil refiner, and push ahead
   with an8 billion-euro investment plan for the disusedHellenikonairport,
   which has been beset by years of delays, Mitsotakissaid.

   "Hellenikonwill soon become the symbol of a new Greeceof '¦
   extroversion and innovation," he said.

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