Greece’s newly-elected govt wins confidence vote on economic policy

Greece’s newly-elected conservative government won a confidence vote on Monday on its economic policy, which includes tax cuts and measures to speed up investments.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party won a landslide election on July 7, on pledges to cut taxes and boost growth in an economy which shrank by a quarter during a protracted debt crisis.

“We are going past the era of taxes and poverty to investments and well-paid jobs,” Mitsotakis told lawmakers ahead of the vote. “It’s up to us… to write our own history, starting today by voting the government’s programme statements.”

The policy was approved by all 158 lawmakers of the ruling conservative party in the 300-seat parliament.

Mitsotakis has promised to reduce property, income and corporate taxation, and carry out reforms on public administration to remove bureaucratic hurdles for investments.

He has also identified loss-making state-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) and the launch of a long-delayed tourist and property investment among his term’s top priorities.

Greece’s energy ministry on Monday unveiled a plan to overhaul PPC, including voluntary redundancies and selling shares in its distribution network.

The government also plans to speed up the regulatory process so that a long-delayed tourist investment project at a disused Athens airport can be launched by the end of the year, the development minister said on Monday.

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