The new interim Greek Finance Minister George Chouliarakis said the country has entered into a recessionary phase, during the ceremony of the handing over of the Ministry by outgoing Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Friday. Chouliarakis added he hoped this period would be short-lived, while he stressed the need for a bank recapitalization as soon as possible, so that the newly elected government would have a better ‘negotiating card’ in its hands with the creditors. He underlined the main goal was to lift the capital controls on banks within 2016 in order to ‘kick start’ the Greek economy. Furthermore, he set the priority of the caretaker government of gaining back the lost confidence of Greece towards its EU partners. Both politicians used critical overtones when referring to former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, saying ‘good things were done, but better things could have been done’.