29 Jul 2013
EU sees Greece slowly pulling out of crisis, Letta blames Troika for making it worse
FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - According to the third quarterly review of the Greek bailout program conducted and published today by the European Commission, the country has made “slow” progress as far as fiscal adjustment and reform implementation is concerned.
The EC pointed out that improving Greek economic data in the first half of the year suggests “a gradual bottoming out of the decline in economic activity” and stood by its earlier forecast that the country would return to growth in 2014. According to the report, Greek GDP is expected to fall by 4.2% this year, expand by 0.6% in 2014, by 2.9% in 2015 and by 3.7% in 2016.
The EC warns however that Greece still faces many obstacles on the road to recovery and emphasized the importance of implementing further "far-reaching" reforms, such as "public administration reform, improvements of the business environment, energy and justice."
Meanwhile, Italian PM Enrico Letta, who is visiting Athens today, strongly criticized the way the Greek bailout program had been handled by the Troika, saying that the harsh austerity measures aggravated the crisis in the country.
“There is no doubt that serious mistakes were made about Greece by Europe in the past few years,” he said. “The timing was wrong. The instruments were wrong. The interventions were not made in the right way and at the right time and this worsened the crisis.”
The EC pointed out that improving Greek economic data in the first half of the year suggests “a gradual bottoming out of the decline in economic activity” and stood by its earlier forecast that the country would return to growth in 2014. According to the report, Greek GDP is expected to fall by 4.2% this year, expand by 0.6% in 2014, by 2.9% in 2015 and by 3.7% in 2016.
The EC warns however that Greece still faces many obstacles on the road to recovery and emphasized the importance of implementing further "far-reaching" reforms, such as "public administration reform, improvements of the business environment, energy and justice."
Meanwhile, Italian PM Enrico Letta, who is visiting Athens today, strongly criticized the way the Greek bailout program had been handled by the Troika, saying that the harsh austerity measures aggravated the crisis in the country.
“There is no doubt that serious mistakes were made about Greece by Europe in the past few years,” he said. “The timing was wrong. The instruments were wrong. The interventions were not made in the right way and at the right time and this worsened the crisis.”
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