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Newly-Elected Greek Government Wins Confidence Vote on Economic Policy


Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledges applause from ministers of his government following a confidence vote on government policies in Athens, Greece, July 22, 2019.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledges applause from ministers of his government following a confidence vote on government policies in Athens, Greece, July 22, 2019.

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 program 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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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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