Greek Regional Development and Competitiveness Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis on Wednesday said
there was no large room for further cutting spending, as demanded by the troika, and stressed that more effort was needed towards boosting budget revenue and supporting growth, while he expressed his optimism that Greece will return to markets in 2012. The Greek minister attributed a shortfall in budget revenues to inefficient state mechanisms -which needed reorganization- and the state’s inspection inability. He noted that the Finance ministry was moving towards improving its efficiency with help from outside and sounded optimistic that this effort would bear fruit. He added, however: "Let’s be honest, without growth, revenues will be rise only marginally".
Chrysohoidis said that as promised, prices on 700 products fell in the country since last Christmas, while another 2,000 products absorbed higher VAT rates, and underlined the need to promote Greek products. "A recovery will come from our own forces," he noted.
