ATHENS:
Greece outlined measures to spice up its lagging birthrate on Thursday, from vouchers and childcare advantages to tax breaks for brand new dad and mom, though specialists questioned the plan’s effectiveness.
Greece has one in all Europe’s lowest fertility charges, a dire demographic state pushed by a decade-long financial disaster, emigration and adjusted attitudes among the many younger. The prime minister has referred to as it a nationwide menace and a “ticking time bomb” for pensions.
It at the moment spends round one billion euros a 12 months on pro-child measures. But it recorded its lowest ever variety of births in 2022.
The measures outlined on Thursday by the household, inside, finance and well being ministries embrace tax reduction for brand new dad and mom, daycare vouchers, an increase within the minimal wage from 2025, pension will increase and social contribution reductions.
However demography specialists and even authorities officers acknowledge the lengthy street forward.
“It’s a on condition that the demographic downside … can not merely be solved by advantages and money incentives,” deputy finance minister Thanos Petralias instructed journalists on Thursday.
Petralias stated fixing the issue additionally required bettering the training and well being techniques, boosting incomes and higher work-life steadiness circumstances.
Tumbling birthrates are an issue for governments throughout Europe, the place international locations together with France, Italy, Norway and Spain have spent billions of euros on pro-child measures, to little impact.
The measures are a part of a broader plan aimed toward reversing the downward pattern of Greece’s birthrate, which officers had instructed Reuters could be unveiled in Could however has been pushed again to later this 12 months.
The plan consists of inexpensive housing for younger individuals, monetary incentives for assisted copy, and incorporating migrants into the workforce.
“They (these measures) may have no dramatic affect on births,” stated Byron Kotzamanis, a number one demography anticipate in Greece.
“There must be a special coverage to sort out the issue at its core,” he stated, including this included giving younger individuals incentives to stay in Greece and attracting again those that left.