ATHENS (Sputnik) — Re-appointed Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Wednesday that he had defined four priority directions for the ministry to implement reforms requested by Greece's lenders under the latest bailout deal.
"The priorities of the Finance Ministry are: contribution to stability via recapitalization of banks, completion of the first assessment [of the reform program by lenders], and then discussion of the national debt. Finally, we will contribute to the cause of social justice through changes in the tax system and in other ways that we have to think over to collect money from those who have it," Tsakalotos said at a meeting to transfer ministerial duties.
Tsakalotos served as Greece's finance minister for a short term in the previous government headed by Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras. In August, when the government resigned, Greece named George Chouliarakis as the country’s interim finance minister. After the win in Sunday's Greek parliamentary elections, the newly re-elected Syriza government restored Tsakalotos to the post.
While transferring responsibilities to Tsakalotos, Chouliarakis said that the downturn in the Greek economy was smaller than expected. Talking about the recapitalization of banks, he said that a group in the ministry and the Bank of Greece had been working on the issue, and in the coming days, the ministry would lift a series of restrictions that had been introduced to supervise the banking system.
