THESSALONIKI, Greece Greeces prime minister promised Saturday to lower corporate taxes to help revive the debt-plagued countrys shrinking economy, while thousands of protesters marched against the governments harsh austerity measures.
Greece narrowly avoided bankruptcy in May when European countries and the International Monetary Fund gave it euro110 billion through 2012 in emergency loans. The money came on condition Athens make deep cutbacks � moves that have angered citizens suffering from a recession.
Prime Minister George Papandreou said the tax rate on companies retained profits would be cut from 24 to 20 percent next year, providing what he called "a strong incentive for investments and competitiveness."
He also pledged to open up restricted professions � including truck drivers, notaries, taxi drivers and pharmacists � deregulate the energy market, settle on privatization targets and simplify business licensing procedures by the end of this year.
Some 20,000 people gathered in three separate protests in the northern port city of Thessaloniki ahead of Papandreous speech. They were accompanied by some 4,500 police on security duty.
Minor clashes broke out as scores of youths attacked riot police with sticks, and were repelled with tear gas. No arrests or injuries were immediately reported. Police pre-emptively detained 20 people, including 15 from Spain, Italy, Britain and Portugal.
Previous protests have turned violent, and in May three people died in a bank torched by hooded youths who infiltrated a large demonstration in Athens � an action that shocked Greeks and deflated the protest movement.
Earlier Saturday, an elderly man threw a shoe at Papandreou, who had just inaugurated an annual trade fair. The projectile landed wide of its target, and the alleged shoe-thrower was arrested but later freed as Papandreou declined to press charges.
The center-left government says its daunting task of reducing the budget deficit from 13.6 percent of annual output in 2009 to 8.1 percent this year is on track, and has pledged to maintain the pace.
The government announced plans Friday to overhaul the state-run rail company � with debts of euro10.7 billion $13.62 billion_ by cutting payrolls and rail services. About 40 percent of its 6,300 workers will leave and be offered other public sector jobs, while the company faces private competition.
Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said Friday that reforms would extend to other state corporations. "As a society, we have shown that we understand the problem," he said.
But amid a deepening recession and high unemployment, unions are angry at this years deep spending cuts and consumer tax hikes, and fear new cutbacks. Heralding a new round of unrest, railway workers are planning strikes against payroll cuts, and some unionists have threatened to burn privately operated trains.
State revenues are increasing at a lower-than-projected rate, and the government has said it may have to increase sales tax rates on a broad range of goods, or raise heating fuel costs.
Officials insist, however, that together with the pain, the countrys worst postwar economic crisis will allow key reforms to the bloated, inefficient public sector and encourage a healthier development model.
Papandreou said Friday that in the coming year, apart from "fighting the monster deficits and debt," government policy would focus on reforms to tourism � a key earner � education, agriculture and renewable energy.
Inspectors from the EU and IMF next week will review the progress of austerity measures required for the bailout loans, as well as on efforts to cut the budget deficit. The country is due to receive euro9 billion over the next few days in the second installment of the loans.
Greece remains off the market for government bonds � with interest rates at 9.6 percentage points higher than those for the benchmark German 10-year issue. Instead, Athens is seeking shorter-term loans, and is due to auction euro900 million $1.14 billion worth of 26-week treasury bills on Tuesday.
The employment crisis has hit parts of northern Greece the hardest, including the town of Naoussa, where the jobless rate hit 50 percent, worsened by the relocation of factories to nearby Bulgaria.
"We have no hope. At this point we have nothing," said Ioanna Stoumbiari, and unemployed worker at a recently closed textile factory. "Who will hire me at 50? I want to work, but who will hire me? Theyre not hiring younger kids, theyre going to hire me?"
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Associated Press writer Costas Kantouris and APTN producer Theodora Tongas contributed to this report.
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