Bank of Greece head Yiannis Stournaras said the effects of implementing the memoranda in Greece were devastating, but added the results of a default would have been incalculable, during an event organised by a group called ‘Citizen’s Movement’ on Monday. The central banker attributed the crisis to expansive public spending before 2000 that resulted in the huge rise of the state budget deficit. ‘The memoranda that followed were attempts to avoid the country’s bankruptcy’, he added. Stournaras argued that the public discourse that ensued during the crisis was not sober and calm creating delusions, which led to public opinion resisting adopting the need for radical structural reforms. He underlined that the result of this was that of the 4 countries that had entered into restructuring programs only Greece had not exited the memorandum. ‘Ireland, which was also forced to make reforms now has an 8 percent growth rate’, he said. On the capital controls and the bank holiday imposed in summer, Stournaras said the direct and indirect consequences were difficult to fully assess.