New Greek PM Samaras To Name Cabinet Members

"Probably the economy will try to pick up again and some money will be pumped into the market," he said. "Otherwise, if there's no money in the economy, there's going to be no improvement into what you get in your pocket at the end of the day."

Salaries have been deeply cut over the past 2 ½ years in the shrinking private job market and the large civil service. Still, civil servants have been spared from the kind of layoffs that have left more than one in five Greek workers jobless.

Pensions have dwindled and taxes have repeatedly been raised, although constant pledges to overhaul an inefficient tax system that primarily targets salaried employees and pensioners have failed to deliver.

The new ministers and their deputies were sworn in shortly before the Cabinet meeting. Rapanos will be sworn in at a later date so outgoing Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias can represent Greece at Thursday's meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg.

Former diplomat Dimitris Avramopoulos was appointed foreign minister, while former conservative development minister Costis Hadzidakis was named minister of "development, competitiveness, infrastructure, transport and networks."

Stelios Karabasakis, an I.T. student doing his national service in the army, said the new Cabinet failed to impress him.

"Basically it's a mix of people we've seen before and which the people of Greece don't trust a lot," he said. "And ... about the new names, we'll have to wait and see."

Greek stocks rallied for a sixth straight session, closing the day up 1.83 percent. The stock market has gained nearly 10 percent in the past week, but has still lost nearly 90 percent of its value over the past five years.

___

Menelaos Hadjicostis, Elena Becatoros and Efty Katsareas in Athens, and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3