Valdis Dombrovskis to ANA: «The tendency is clear that Greece is returning to the markets»
“Greece is back to growth,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis stated to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), in an interview given just days after the heads of the institutions’ missions completed a round of contacts in Athens.
He noted that Greece, during the three consecutive programmes, has implemented a major reform agenda, carrying out reforms that strengthen the competitiveness and the fundaments of the Greek economy, which is now growing.
The European Commissioner in charge of the euro but also Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Dombrovskis said that things seem to be going well on the fiscal side, with Greece having met its target for 2018 and expected to do the same for this year. He also said that “the tendency is clear that Greece is returning to the markets” but warned that its return after being excluded from the markets for nine years “is a very delicate task” that does not leave much room for either “manoeuvres” or “mistakes”.
The full interview given by the European Commission Vice President responsible for the euro and fiscal stability to the ANA’s correspondent in Brussels Maria Aroni is given below:
Five months ago Greece exited ESM programme. What is your first assessment on the pace of reform implementation during this first post-memorandum period?
Dombrovskis: As you know there was the enhanced surveillance mission in Athens this week doing the assessment and its report will come out later in February. Broadly speaking things seem to be broadly on track on the fiscal side. Greece has met its target in 2018 and the budget is prepared in a way which will allow to meet also the primary surplus target foreseen of GDP this year. This time the enhanced surveillance mission concentrated on structural reform implementation, including reform of the banking sector, concerning measures to reduce NPLs and also household insolvency and other areas of reforms. Of course, there are still quite a few important reforms which are still in the process of implementation, as for example strengthening the independent tax authority, the work of the land register or cadastre and the work on privatisation. All these areas now have been followed up and will be reflected in our progress report.
Source: amna-mpa
