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Alexis Tsipras: Greece’s Biggest Cartel Is the Banking Sector
🇬🇷 Greece /Economy & Trade

Alexis Tsipras: Greece’s Biggest Cartel Is the Banking Sector

From Ta Nea · () Greek

Translated from Greek and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Alexis Tsipras said Greece must create and use new economic opportunities instead of waiting for others to provide them.
  • He argued that oligopolies across the economy, especially in banking, were putting pressure on self-employed people and small and medium-sized companies.
  • Tsipras made the comments at a meeting with Thessaloniki business representatives before presenting his party’s policy positions.

Alexis Tsipras identified Greece’s banking sector as the country’s “biggest cartel” during a meeting with representatives of Thessaloniki’s productive sectors.

The leader of the Greek Left Alliance said Greece should stop losing opportunities and build a new productive model that gives small and medium-sized businesses more room to grow. He said the country should not wait for opportunities to be handed to it, but should create and take advantage of them.

Tsipras argued that eight years after Greece emerged from the bailout-era crisis, businesses still faced lingering burdens. He cited the business levy, advance tax payments, different VAT rates and persistently high VAT as problems that continue to trouble professionals and small and medium-sized entrepreneurs.

He said the concentration of oligopolies in nearly every sector had intensified in recent years. In his view, such conditions make it difficult for medium-sized businesses to expand. Banks, he said, were the most important cartel facing the Greek economy, pointing to high charges and the difficulty companies face in securing loans.

“To obtain financing, a business must first prove that it does not need to borrow,” Tsipras said, adding that this situation did not exist elsewhere in the European Union. He told business representatives he had come to hear their proposals and asked them to consider a long-term vision for entrepreneurship and Thessaloniki, rather than focusing only on the next six months.

To obtain financing, a business must first prove that it does not need to borrow. This does not exist elsewhere

— Alexis TsiprasHe criticized the difficulty Greek businesses face when seeking bank loans.
About this summary

Originally published by Ta Nea in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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