Tax hikes send protesters out into the streets
Small manufacturers were among the professional groups to demonstrate in central Athens yesterday in protest at the government’s recently introduced taxes, which included dropping a tax-free threshold for the self-employed. In a bid to boost revenues by some four billion euros per year, the Finance Ministry announced in August a series of new taxes to fill state coffers as the global economic slowdown weighs on the Greek economy. Meanwhile in Washington late yesterday, National Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis repeated that Greece’s economy is performing better than many of its European Union peers in the difficult international economic environment.
