Pangalos: Measures, taxation, need to be more development-oriented

Government vice-president Theodoros Pangalos called for the government’s policy and taxation to be more development-oriented, in a newspaper interview appearing on Sunday.

It is something that has begun with a series of legislation, Pangalos said in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini newspaper, and admitted that “we have delayed a bit on this”, but added that “it is not that simple, like pushing a button and commencing development, in other words convincing businesspeople to make investments”.

On economic developments, Pangalos confirmed that “we have not asked, nor intend to ask” a restructuring of the country’s debt, and also defended the government’s measures, noting that “we didn’t have time for experimentation”.

He also appeared confident that Greece can achieve a primary surplus, “in other words to bring down the deficit to under 3 percent (of GDP) in order to halt the rise in the debt” by 2012-2013.

This, however, “does not save us from the problem, and that is why we must turn our attention to growth”, Pangalos stressed.