“Greece’s return to investment grade, last year, marks the return to normalcy and the beginning of a new effort to enhance the prosperity of the Greek people,” Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Yannis Stournaras said.
“The sacrifices of our fellow citizens during the difficult years of the crisis, together with the unprecedented, in historical times, support of our European partners, as well as the reforms and responsible policies of the governments, brought results,” Stournaras noted.
For 2024, he pointed out that it will be a year of hope but also of challenges, such as those entailed by the climate crisis and geopolitical uncertainty.
But all the big challenges, as he said, require more Europe, not less. “There will be no definitive response to the new major challenges without greater and broader fiscal consolidation, completion of the banking union and the creation of a true capital markets union,” he noted.
Stournaras reminded that this year marks 25 years since the adoption of the euro (1/1/1999), while Greece’s accession to the Eurozone was also decided in June 2000.
He participated in the negotiations of the then government for the participation of Greece in the EMU from the position of the president of the Council of Economic Experts of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance and also as a member of the Monetary Committee of the European Communities in the period 1994-2000.
He characterized Greece’s accession to the Eurozone, in 2001, as the greatest achievement in the modern economic history of the country as it sealed its European orientation and placed it at the center of European developments.
