Securing economic growth is a key way of reducing poverty and social exclusion, said New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute of Democracy, Mitsotakis highlighted that his party’s program includes the introduction of minimum guaranteed income for 800,000 people at a cost of one billion euros per year and the loosening of criteria for unemployment benefits.
“Poverty will be answered only if growth helps pull up as many people as possible above the poverty line which is today at 4,500 euros. That way, poverty level will gradually rise and approach pre-crisis levels,” he said.
“If elections are held this year, the government of New Democracy has already put together a plan that can achieve growth rates to the order of 4 percent for 2019-2021. That translates into 600,000 new job positions and the reduction of unemployment by 7 percentage points in comparison to 2017 levels,” he added.
