National Bank of Greece, the country’s biggest bank by assets, wants to pick up the pace as its moves on from the crippling legacy of the financial crisis, and its Chief Executive Officer is planning two main initiatives to get there, Bloomberg News reported. On the docket: a possible move to bring forward the securitization of bad loans currently scheduled for 2021 and the sale of the company’s insurance unit as soon as this year, CEO Paul Mylonas said. The moves could both help cut costs as the bank carries out a restructuring plan and seeks to move toward further digitalization.

Greece revealed an ambitious budget for next year that assumes growth will accelerate to 2.8 per cent from a projected 2.0 per cent this year, driven by higher investment inflows and cuts in corporate and personal income tax, the Financial Times reported. Theodoros Skylakakis, deputy finance minister, said on Monday the centre-right government was also committed to achieving a 3.5 per cent primary budget surplus next year — before making debt repayments — as agreed with Greece’s international creditors.

The IMF has urged Greece and its EU partners to agree to ease its fiscal target in order to support the country’s fragile economic recovery and increase social spending, the Financial Times reported. In its annual assessment of the Greek economy the IMF called on Athens and its European partners to “build consensus around a lower primary balance path” for 2020. The IMF’s position contrasts with the stance of the European Commission which argues the high fiscal target is necessary to keep Greece’s debt load sustainable.

Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has announced tax cuts and structural reforms aimed at rebuilding the country’s credibility with investors, after three international bailouts and a grinding eight-year recession, the Financial Times reported. “Greece has turned a page,” the prime minister said in a speech on Saturday evening to businesspeople in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Greece’s new finance minister has said that implementing sweeping tax reforms will be his “key priority” as his country seeks to boost growth and rebuild credibility with investors following a decade of international bailouts backed by the EU and IMF, the Financial Times reported. Christos Staikouras told the Financial Times that the centre-right New Democracy government is planning “a comprehensive tax reform that will have a four-year horizon and will accelerate growth”.

Greece unveiled on Monday a plan to overhaul loss-making state-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) to shore up its finances, including voluntary redundancies and selling shares in its distribution network, Reuters reported. PPC, which is 51% owned by the state, has been struggling to collect part of more than 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) of arrears from bills left unpaid during the country’s debt crisis, which began in late 2009.

Senior officials from Greece's creditor institutions are meeting in Athens with the country's new conservative government, which is planning to begin dismantling bailout-era taxes next month, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Representatives of the European Commission, European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and a eurozone rescue fund were holding meetings Thursday with at least five cabinet ministers, government officials said.

Greece's new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed Wednesday to make government more efficient and to legislate for tax cuts later this month despite concerns raised by the country's creditors over economic promises made during the election campaign, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Although Greece no longer relies on funds from international bailouts, its economy is still under strict supervision and its partners in the 19-country eurozone have made clear that the fiscal goals agreed to by the previous government must be adhered to.

Greece's bailout creditors on Monday bluntly rejected calls from the country's new conservative government to ease draconian budget conditions agreed as part of its rescue program, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as Greece's new prime minister Monday, a day after his resounding election victory on campaign pledges to cut taxes and negotiate new terms with international lenders.

As Greece prepares for its first post-bailout national election next month, whoever emerges as the country’s next prime minister will face an immediate challenge: how to deal with the European Commission’s warnings of backtracking on reforms, Bloomberg News reported. A package of relief measures adopted by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government in May will incur a cost of more than 1% of gross domestic product in 2019 and beyond, the Commission said in its post-bailout review for Greece on Wednesday.