30 Jul 2013
Greek Fin Min optimistic on Greece's prospects
FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras said today in an interview for Reuters that the outlook for Greece could be better than that offered by the Troika and that there was a possibility of avoiding the 2% of GDP budget gap over 2015 and 2016, projected by the international lenders.
"We are running our own forecasts for the medium term so let's first of all see if there is any fiscal gap because you know these things are very sensitive to the growth rates," he said.
Yannis Stournaras also suggested that the greatest risk for Greece right now was not economic but rather political, stemming from fatigue caused by harsh austerity measures.
“MPs just reflect the average man or woman in the street - they have to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” the Greek finance minister said. “If they believe it they will continue voting the few necessary measures left over, if they don't they are not going to. This is the great risk.”
Finally, he admitted that the EU as well as Greece had made grave mistakes as far as crisis resolution is concerned but that it was better for the country to have avoided the "total disaster" which an exit from the Eurozone would have been.
"We are running our own forecasts for the medium term so let's first of all see if there is any fiscal gap because you know these things are very sensitive to the growth rates," he said.
Yannis Stournaras also suggested that the greatest risk for Greece right now was not economic but rather political, stemming from fatigue caused by harsh austerity measures.
“MPs just reflect the average man or woman in the street - they have to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” the Greek finance minister said. “If they believe it they will continue voting the few necessary measures left over, if they don't they are not going to. This is the great risk.”
Finally, he admitted that the EU as well as Greece had made grave mistakes as far as crisis resolution is concerned but that it was better for the country to have avoided the "total disaster" which an exit from the Eurozone would have been.