Skylakakis: A general lockdown is not on the table

“Revenues are very important this year because it is a year that the budget has been injured due to the coronavirus”, stressed the Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis, speaking on the ANT1 show “Summer Together”.

At the same time, Mr. Skylakakis stressed that “the good course of revenues is the basis for the coming years when the pandemic will be overcome.”

Referring to the debts that are “frozen” and are now “thawing”, he noted that these, together with the repayable advance are 8 to 10 billion euros, and stressed that “we will have a fairly long repayment time.”

Speaking about the pandemic, the Deputy Minister of Finance said that “measures that affect the economy should not be taken. We have to solve the problem of the pandemic through vaccination,” and called on everyone to be vaccinated, especially the elderly.

“We will not take general restrictive measures that will hurt the economy. A general lockdown is not on the table “, Mr. Skylakakis underlined.

Who will receive money from the Recovery Fund

Regarding the Recovery Fund, Mr. Skylakakis stressed that in order to be able to get money from the loan program, one must have money to invest. “The state can not subsidize you to invest”, he stressed and added that “working capital is prohibited by the Recovery Fund”, money is given only for investments

At the same time, he noted that “profits are taxed very low. He who has the ability to invest, if he proves it to us, will have plenty of state funding.”

Regarding fixed expenses, he said that the platform will be opened this week, while about rents, he said “tax returns end in August and there is time to make corrections to rents”.

Mr. Skylakakis clarified that “we do not have permanent measures, the tax reliefs will be temporary, we will see what happens in 2022,” however he expressed his optimism that the economy will go extremely well.

Finally, on the minimum wage, he said that it “is a function of GDP. Today we have a GDP below that of 2019,” and he added that his forecast is “that we will go to faster growth and the labor market will lead to wage increases in the near future “.