The Greek government and the Prime Minister started a war against the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras, and officially described him as “a failed finance minister”. The war broke out just hours after a BoG Interim Report on the Monetary Policy 2017 suggested a “Memorandum Light” for the country, a “precautionary support program” after the end of the current austerity program in August 2018.
A non paper of 45 words issued by the Prime Minister’s office describes BoG governor Yannis Stournaras as a “failed Finance Minister in a failed government”. Stournaras (PASOK) served as a Finance Ministers in New Democracy-PASOK coalition government from 5 July 2012 until 10 June 2014.
Commenting on the “precautionary support program”, the non paper reads:
“Because back then a failed finance minister back and a failed government had set as optimum not the exit to the markets at favorable rates but the support line, this does not mean that a successful government cannot do much better. All evidences shows exactly this.”
A support program for the time after the exit from the 3. bailout fiscal adustment program in 2018 seems to be no option for the Prime Minister and the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition. The government is confident that it is more successful than the Samaras government and it will manage have Greece return to the markets with “favorable interest rates.”
The Bank of Greece report said among other that Greece will need a “precautionary support program” that will help the Greek economy and lower the cost of borrowing.
PS To tell you the truth I cannot reckon what Stournaras did so that someone can describe him as “a successful finance minister”… Of course, one can ask: when is a finance minister successful? When he follows by the book the lenders’ orders like Euclid Tsakalotos in hope to improve the country’s fiscal data, or when he enjoys a fat salary and does little or nothing?
For the SYRIZA-ANEL government Stournaras has always been the red cloth in front of the eyes of a raging bull.
For me, Stournaras, a former close aide to Simitis, was an academic pretending to be a finance minister.
