–Adds Comments From Q&A Session To Story Sent At 18:32 GMT
VIENNA (MNI) – Greece’s fiscal consolidation program is on track
and will remain so, Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou said Friday
in a speech at the IIF spring membership meeting here.
In the q&a session Papandreou reaffirmed that Greece will honour
its contract with the financial community. “Yes, we will repay our
debt,” he stressed.
“We have taken difficult decisions, tough but necessary decisions,”
the Prime Minister said in his speech. “And we are now witnessing the
first signs that we are turning the corner.”
Papandreou noted that in the first five months of the year, the
Greek deficit was down 40% compared to the same period last year. “So we
are well within the targets we have set – and this even before many of
the new measures we have taken have locked in,” he pointed out.
“We are on target, and expect to remain so,” he underlined.
The Greek reform program can start the growth cycle again on a more
sustainable basis, the Prime Minister asserted. “Greece has tremendous
growth potential waiting to be realized,” he said.
Theories about default, haircuts and exit from the Eurozone show a
remarkable lack of historical perspective and understanding of the basic
rules of European economics and politics, Papandreou argued.
Persistent rumours about returning to the drachma in Greece or
being expelled from the European Union are “nonsense,” he stressed.
Papandreou welcomed this week’s final agreement on the technical
details for the EU stabilisation fund for the euro and called for the
mechanism to be permanent.
“We should now work for a permanent stabilisation fund, a new
European Monetary Fund financed by contributions of Eurozone members
proportionate to the size of their wealth,” he said.
–Vienna desk: +49-177-724-77-39; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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