Top banker warns against backsliding

For Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras, Greece’s emergence from close surveillance is a major achievement.

“If we take into account that the vast majority of economists in academia and analysts twice – in 2012 and especially in 2015 – believed that Greece would not manage to remain in the eurozone, the fact that it is returning to a normal state is a great success,” the central banker tells Kathimerini.

Having first-hand experience of the difficult years of painful austerity under the agreements with Greece’s creditors, first as minister of finance (2012-14) and as Bank of Greece governor since, Stournaras has a warning: “We must make sure not to repeat the mistakes that led us to [the austerity agreements]: We cannot reverse the correct measures, for example, on pension policy, taxation and fiscal management, which ensured fiscal stability,” he said.