Total return to normalcy for our country.
By Chrysostomos Tsoufis
The Eurogroup decision of 16 June, sealed the end of a 12-year era. 12 years in which the country was at the mercy of 2 crises, a debt crisis and a credit crunch. And where to stand on her feet again, had to go through fire and iron through 3 exterminating memoranda for taxpayers. As of August 21, however, Greece is leaving the regime of enhanced supervision and enters a new era.
THE Eurogroup decision, means that Greece is now shaking off the “resin” of the country under financial control. She alone had to undergo the 3-month evaluations of the post-memorandum supervision, at a time when the … traumatic memories of the arrivals every 3 months first of the troika and then of the institutions for the on-site evaluations or at the Ministry of Finance initially or later to the Hilton and Department of Justice under the memoranda.
The decision of the Eurogroup means that Greece comes even closer to the investment tier, the Holy Grail right now for the government with ESM’s Klaus Regling applauding the national target. It ceases to be a special case, and the goal of obtaining an investment grade – political developments allowing – in 2023 becomes fully achievable despite the difficult environment. In any case, the country is on a path of constant upgrades, with 12 such in the last 3 years.
The country is also gaining greater control of its budgets, has greater ease of movement. Of course, it is put in the stage of post-program monitoring where the controls are even more relaxed, every six months and not every quarter, while it will have “company” Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland.
The Commission, the Eurogroup and the ESM, however, make it clear that post-memorandum supervision is ending, but not the need for reform aiming at sustainable development that will also reduce debt.
They are also disbursed 748m in debt reduction measures. Another installment is pending from the summer of 2019 when due to elections it could not be controlled. The country has left a list of 22 pending issues including the settlement of arrears, the draft budget for 2023, the Land Registry, specific actions in privatization, forest maps, the Real estate agency and the clawback. The course of their implementation will be examined in the fall so that the eurogroup in December can decide on the disbursement of the last money.
All of the above, together with the end of the capital controls and the early repayment of the IMF, mean a total return to normalcy for the country.
