Finance Minister states Greece will not require another bailout
“There will be no need for a new bailout,” Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday on ANT1 TV.
The minister noted that the country was regularly borrowing from capital markets, that it had secured an additional 2.5 billion euros from the SURE program, and hoped for additional revenue from other sources.
“Our hope is for a gradual reopening of the market and we expect tourism to perform better than last year, while we also expect money flows from the [EU] recovery fund. All this makes us optimistic that there will be a strong recovery followed by strong economic growth,” he said.
Staikouras added that a seventh round of state loans to enterprises and the self-employed will be paid by the end of April and left the door open – depending on developments in the pandemic – for the introduction of an eighth round.
“We must agree that the measures have been satisfactory in terms of preventing layoffs and business closures, so far. We must see whether some enterprises might find it difficult to maintain their workforce after reopening and that’s why we are examining the continuation of support measures,” he said.
“We must act promptly and methodically to preserve funds to help households and enterprises. We have the funds to support society, but as the crisis deepens we will not be able to compensate for all the losses suffered by citizens,” Staikouras stated.
