Bank of Greece (BoG) Governor and former Finance Minister Giannis Stournaras has warned the Greek government that a final agreement with the country’s loan partners should soon be reached in order to avoid a frightful setback to the country’s economic recovery. Addressing BoG’s annual shareholders meeting, Stournaras underlined that “we must pursue negotiations in a spirit of cooperation and trust, and promptly conclude a mutually beneficial final agreement with our partners,” adding that if Greece adheres to its commitments, “the partners can, in turn, be expected to reiterate their decision to consider further measures to alleviate the country’s debt burden.” In an attempt to compare today’s situation with the one he had to encounter when he was in charge of the Greek Finance Ministry, Stournaras said that the reforms the current government is urged to take “are much smaller in scope and would entail low cost.” Regrading his Ministerial period, he stressed that “huge changes had to be made at a very high price for the Greek society.” Furthermore, the BoG Governor made a plea to the government to review tax exemptions, favorable tax treatment and complete the privatizations program. Moreover, Greece’s central banker referred to his sector, pointing out that an agreement with the Eurozone and the institutions must also be fulfilled for an additional reason: So that the European Central Bank (ECB) can resume funding the Greek banks, explaining that there are still too many bad loans and liquidity was damaged over the last few months.
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