Economic Reform Should Not Be Deflected By Greek Debt Relief: Stated Senior ECB Official


10/22/2016

While, ECB assures to take future economic projection of Greece by keeping the country’s debt relief in mind, it also clarifies that economic reformation should not feel its repel.



One senior official of ECB, on Friday, the 21st of October 2016, informed that Greek debt restructuring “not deflect the country” from its commitments towards economic reforms for lowering its “multi-billion euro bailout”.
 
The lobbying of “Crisis-hit Greece” has worked hard to recover the debts to “manageable levels”, while “at 179 percent of GDP” remains the “highest” within the euro-zone. Even though the foreign creditors of the country, ECB being one such organisation, have given their consent to the idea, they have not yet worked out the “how” of the process.
 
The ECB representative, Francesco Drudi, at Athens’ “bailout discussions”, assured that “any projections on Greece's future economic outlook” will be carried out by taking “debt relief into account”. However, in his words:
“…debt relief measures should be designed in a way that does not discourage the path of reforms”.
 
In the month of May, the governments of the euro-zone, gave Greece a debt relief extension till the year of 2018, while its “current bailout accord”, being the third one since the year of 2010, would ‘expire’. No further specifications were given in this matter. According to Drudi, ECB needs to take up a “new sustainability analysis” before it takes the final decision about “whether Greek debt can be included in its quantitative easing program”. While, Reuters adds:
“Inclusion in the asset purchase scheme would cut Greece's debt servicing costs”.
 
 
 
 
References:
http://www.reuters.com/