Greece's recently announced tax measures were necessary to keep the budget gap safely below the European Union's 3.0 percent limit, the Greek finance minister said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.
Last week Greece unveiled a 10 percent tax on capital gains and dividends as part of a package to boost budget revenue and prevent a derailment of public finances as the economy slows.
Greece was removed from the EU's so-called excessive deficit procedure after slashing its fiscal gap to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product, ending three years on the black list of budgetary offenders.
The country's centre-right government is aiming for a deficit of 1.6 percent this year, a target economists say will be tough to reach. "We want to be at a safe distance from 3.0 percent, not just below it," Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis told Sunday's Kathimerini newspaper.
"Apart from the (global financial) crisis, there is a need for Greece to attain a fiscal adjustment of about 0.5 percent of GDP every year until it reaches a balanced budget. For as long as there is a deficit we must be reducing it by half a percentage point. It's not an insignificant amount."