Stournaras expects return to capital markets in mid-2018

Greece's central bank chief urged eurozone finance ministers on Monday to grant his country debt relief hours before they were to meet in Brussels to discuss short-term easing measures and said he expects a return to capital markets in mid-2018.

"Greece needs debt sustainability along with a more realistic final fiscal target after the end of the current program," Yannis Stournaras told German newspaper Handelsblatt. "These two require some mild measures of debt relief."

Asked whether German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had a point when he said that Greece must implement reforms instead of hoping for further debt forgiveness, as such measures would discourage efforts to reform, Stournaras said:

"No, this is a rather extreme interpretation of moral hazard." [Reuters]