Greece’s former Finance Minister and proposed Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras stressed that certain corrections in economic policy are only to be expected and referred to the country’s fiscal successes, to the sacrifices of the Greek people and to the reforms that, as he said, will be continued in the direction of improving labour conditions and income, increasing GDP and the liberalization of the markets.

He said that “Greece made great sacrifices in the past years, but is beginning to produce results”.

He also made a reference to the reduction of the available income by 30% as well as to the six-year recession from which, as he said, it appears that we are exiting since we shall return to growth.

Mr Stournaras stressed, however, that there is a serious limitation, liquidity, and said that the measures that the European Central Bank (ECB) took last week are in the right direction, particularly those that have to do with increasing bank liquidity so as to enable them to extend loans to enterprises.

“In Greece even very good enterprises are finding it hard to access liquidity, even for exporting purposes. This is, therefore, a limitation that we are trying to lift, either through the European Investment Bank or through a new institution named Institute for Growth and in which the German KfW bank also participates”, Stournaras said.

Speaking of his experience at Eurogroup over the past two years, the former Finance minister thanked Mr Schaeuble for his support and “his undivided help in crucial moments,”.

Thanks to this support and mainly to the sacrifices of the Greek people “we were able to turn the ship on a growth and prosperity course”, he added and, replying to a question concerning the debt’s course, explained that the causes of its increase have been eliminated since the deficits were turned into surpluses.

Moreover, Mr Schaeuble stated that “If everyone had implemented what was agreed, such as Greece and other countries that needed help did, we would have made a step forward,”.