Christos Staikouras

On a visit to Athens Friday, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Finance Minister Christos Staikouras to discuss the future of the eurozone and the reinforcement of bilateral economic relations, as he himself noted in his Twitter account.
Le Maire described the talks as "very good" and "very constructive."

After the second attack on tax inspectors in 10 days, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras announced on Friday that penalties will be made tougher for assailants.
The latest attack took place on Thursday in the seaside village of Platanias near Volos in central Greece, when two tax inspectors were assaulted while checking the books of a pizza restaurant.

Greece may be saddled with heavy debt, but a lot of it involves loans provided on very favorable terms. Moreover, the continuing sharp decline in bond yields makes further borrowing an attractive proposition.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis welcomed French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to the Maximos Mansion in Athens on Friday for talks that focused on bilateral relations between the two allies, but also on European matters.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras says that Greece has already started discussion with its European Union partners to reduce its primary budget surpluses as of 2020.

"The plan of the prime minister and his financial team is to build, step by step, all the necessary conditions to achieve the goal (to reduce the surplus) as of 2020," Staikouras said in an interview to Kathimerini.

As of the last quarter of this year, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue is set to start piloting an online bookkeeping system for companies in a bid to spare Greek enterprises the hefty administrative costs of conventional bookkeeping that compromise their competitiveness, the authority's head Giorgos Pitsilis announced on Thursday.

A government bill outlining a series of tax reductions is to be voted on in Greece's Parliament on Tuesday and is expected to secure approval with the votes of center-right New Democracy, leftist SYRIZA and the center-left Movement for Change (KINAL).

A provision in new legislation that will be put to lawmakers on Wednesday foresees a two-point reduction to the interest incurred on social security debts, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Monday.

The government is banking on a combination of seven moves, and possibly an eighth, to secure the necessary fiscal space for its 2020 tax breaks, while also cultivating a climate of trust with the country's creditors so that they view Athens' arguments in a positive light.

Plans by the new government in Greece to lower taxes, the impact this would have on the economy and the existence of sufficient fiscal space in order to achieve the primary surplus target of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product will be discussed when the institutions return to Athens in September, European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Managing Director Klaus Regling says in an interview with Kath