OECD calls for reforms to boost growth rate, make debt sustainable

Greece needs to further extend its real age of retirement and to abolish all kinds of tax exemptions, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recommended in a report published on Monday, so that the growth rate accelerates, fiscal revenues expand and the national debt becomes sustainable.

Although the report, presented in Athens on the occasion of OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria's visit, does speak of a return to growth, it undercuts the official forecast for a 2.3 percent economic expansion this year, pointing instead to a 2 percent increase. It adds that a series of reforms could considerably strengthen gross domestic product in the future.

According to the OECD, a four-year rise in the real age of retirement up to 2030 (instead of the already scheduled three-year rise to the age of 65 by the same year) will boost GDP by 10.4...