Hardouvelis to be sworn in as new finance minister

By Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos

Economist Gikas Hardouvelis was named as finance minister in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday, signaling an intent to keep up a difficult reform drive demanded by foreign lenders funding the country.

A professor and adviser to previous governments, Hardouvelis is considered similar to his predecessor Yannis Stournaras, also an economist and technocrat who steered Greece towards economic recovery after it nearly crashed out of the euro zone in 2012.

But while the 58-year-old chief economist at Eurobank is expected to maintain the same focus on fiscal rigour, he is likely also to push for growth by cutting taxes.

He takes over at a time when Greece has put the worst of its debt crisis behind it, but is still grappling with a jobless rate of over 26 percent and public anger at austerity cuts that have spread poverty and squeezed household incomes.

"It's all about continuity in economic policy with a more sensitive and human face,» said Theodore Couloumbis of Greek think-tank ELIAMEP.

"Hardouvelis is very close to the kind of policies that have been implemented by the government and suit the EU and the IMF and are not far away from Stournaras's beliefs."

The appointment was part of a sweeping reshuffle by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras aimed at wresting back momentum from the radical leftist Syriza party, which won the European Parliament election on May 25 here by a margin of nearly four percentage points over the co-ruling conservatives.

Samaras replaced eight out of 20 ministers in the reshuffle, in an effort to show Greeks that his right-left coalition government is heeding their call for change but without angering foreign lenders who have prescribed austerity for...