PM Mitsotakis announces measures to bolster middle class

Seeking to kickstart Greece's sluggish real estate market, boost investments and bolster the construction sector, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday night the suspension for three years of value-added tax payments on the sale of properties whose construction licenses have been issued since 2006.

"In other words, all new constructions, as well as real estate built in the last 14 years and not yet sold, are exempt from value added tax," he said in a speech at a dinner organized by the Economist magazine in Athens, outlining a vision for "the next four years at least" that includes reforms to attract investments, a fiscal policy mix spearheaded by tax cuts and interventions to the banking system to reduce non-performing loans.

The plan, he stressed, seeks to shore up the middle class, which he described as the backbone of society.

"Everyone...