New Finance Minister Faces Challenge Of Prior Actions
The new Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis will have to face a challenge, which would be the prior action measures agreed for the disbursement of two small loan tranches of 1.0 billion euros each, before even meeting its counterparts in the Eurozone.
Among the prior actions are Updating a list of third party taxes, Introducing legislation offering access to uninsured people in pharmaceutical and diagnostics services and changing profit margins of pharmacies, Adopting a new code of ethics for government members and Ministerial decision for the unification of tax collection procedures.
The implementation of these prior actions will prepare the way for the disbursement of two pending loan tranches.
The new Finance minister is considered to be a supporter of free economy and reforms and has supported the transformation of the country's economic model from consumption to exports and investments.
In speeches he made in the past, he has supported cutting wages and pensions and introducing higher taxes.