Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-04

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

CONTENTS

[01] BoG governor Stournaras stresses need to swiftly conclude programme review

[01] BoG governor Stournaras stresses need to swiftly conclude programme review

He explained that this would allow tax reduction, boost growth and improve the analysis of debt sustainability.

Stournaras expressed optimism over the medium-term prospects of the Greek economy provided that the programme review is concluded as soon as possible.

He underlined that the fiscal mixture must change and Greece should not any longer be a tax based economy because this is dangerous. He also proposed a debt relief through a "mild implementation" of interest rate normalization and loan extensions.

Moreover, he urged the government to rapidly proceed with privatisations as well as voting the extrajudicial settlement, and discharging banking executives from criminal liability for restructuring loans and implementing electronic auctions.

Stournaras foresaw high growth rates over the next years provided that the programme review will soon be concluded.

He noted that the Greek government has learned to effectively monitor the execution of the budget and it was very close to the 2016 targets.

As for the eurozone, he said that growth has started to stabilise. However, there are still some threats as a result of the general climate of uncertainty (elections in large European countries such as Germany and France, the rise of populism, protectionism, refugee problem, Brexit, uncertainty in the US political climate.)

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