Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-03-20

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greece's partners have accepted that no more measures can be taken, Venizelos says

[01] Greece's partners have accepted that no more measures can be taken, Venizelos says

"Our partners have accepted that Greece does not need and cannot tolerate any more austerity measures," Venizelos noted.

"This is a very important message to the Greek people and to the European societies," Venizelos said adding that due to the large primary surplus, Greece can gradually begin restoring the injustices and to strengthen the protection measures and the social cohesion to help vulnerable social groups, families without income, with many children, uninsured elderly, long-term unemployed without state support, homeless, as well as combatting extreme poverty.

He added that the Greek banking system is fully recapitalised and powerful and "now has the obligation to help entrepreneurship, employment, and the real economy." He also stressed the importance of completing the structural changes, particularly in relation with public administration and market deregulation in order to become fully competitive.

The government vice-president clarified that this was the only solution as there was a risk of a disorderly default and underlined that the government's main priority is to combat unemployment and to protect the social cohesion. However, he noted that unless the climate changes there will be no results, because only through improved entrepreneurship and investments, can Greece achieve high growth rates and job positions.

He also underlined that after four years Greece has started showing impressive results thanks to the sacrifices of the Greek people. He pointed out that Greece has achieved a primary surplus that exceeds 1.5 percent of GDP and that the fiscal adjustment in nominal terms has reached about 28 billion euros or 13.5 points of GDP.

"But in order to achieve that, the country has taken measures of more than 80 billion euros," Venizelos said adding that the country's fiscal gap, including debt servicing costs, is clearly below 3 percent at 2.1 percent and despite criticism or doubts "the structural changes in major sectors are obvious."

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