Government spending

Greek lawmakers on Tuesday debated new tax breaks proposed by the leftist Syriza administration, seeking to reverse some of the austerity imposed during years of international bailouts.

Global military spending last year reached its highest level in three decades, with the largest share in the US and China, according to the annual report of the Swedish research institute SIPRI.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that the world's military spending in 2018 totals $ 1.8 trillion, 2.7 percent more than 2017, or $ 239 per person.

 Of this amount, BGN 15,000,000 is for the Orthodox Christian Church, reported NOVA TV. 

The Bulgarian government has approved an additional BGN 20,770,000 in state subsidies for 2019 under the Religious Denominations Act, said the government press office.

Public Power Corp (PPC) is considering securitising part of its backlog of unpaid bills and using them as a guarantee to tap bond markets later this year, a Greek newspaper reported on Thursday.

On August 20, 2018, Greece exited the narrow framework of the memorandums. At the same time, it entered into a transitional phase of relative political freedom of movement.

Farmers are to drive their tractors out onto national roads on January 28 to protest the impact of austerity measures on their income, calling for tax breaks, the restoration of revoked benefits and protection for overindebted homeowners.

The state budget is facing a growing threat from court decisions reversing austerity cuts introduced as part of the bailout program.

The latest development on this front was the verdict this week by a section of the Council of State that deemed unconstitutional the abolition of the Christmas, Easter and summer bonuses for pensioners and civil servants which came into force in 2012.

Public sector union ADEDY has organized a demonstration in downtown Athens on Tuesday to coincide with a vote in Parliament on the 2019 budget.

Protesters will gather at 6.30 p.m. at Korai Square and then march to Syntagma.

Members of disabled groups from around Greece — some wearing white gloves to protest in sign language — have staged rallies in Athens and other cities to call for expanded exemptions from bailout-era taxes.

Train and island ferry services in Greece were suspended Wednesday and most Athens public transport was idle as the country's biggest labor union held a strike against persisting austerity measures. The transport shutdown prompted Athenians to drive to work, causing major traffic jams in the capital whose center was shut down ahead of planned protest marches.