Stournaras: There won’t be any additional horizontal measures

'There will be new horizontal measures’ Stournaras said in parliament, a phrase of particular interest as it was preceded by the meeting with Troika.
 
The FinMin said ‘we still have 20% of the overall adjustment effort of the economy until 2016 and it will not come by horizontal measures but by the economic recovery. For 2014 we foresee a modest but positive growth by the restructuring and reorganization of public institutions and the removal of various barriers to competitiveness. These reforms require a vote of confidence in parliament and I hope they will have it.’
 
Stournaras explained that ‘we stood up after the biggest crisis, while many invested in our disaster, but we proved them wrong. The recovery was based on the effectiveness of our efforts and the efforts-sacrifices of the Greek people.’
 
He also referred to the two earlier strategic choices of Greece - joinning the EU and the Eurozone - to argue that ‘because of these we got the support of our European partners. We had a big adjustment to the twin deficits that were exceeding 20 billion euros each and contributed to the outbreak of the crisis but now have been resolved.’
 
He added that Greece has negative inflation and that the size of its adjustment from 2009 until today is ‘historically unprecedented.’
 
He also said he feels vindicated because when he was talking about primary surplus ‘I faced harsh criticism from the opposition but now I am confirmed. The forecasts do not embellish things, they are realistic.’ He noted that Greek spreads are now moving at 650 basis points, which heralds an entry into the international markets.

 
Referring to SYRIZA he said, ‘I am glad that abroad Tsipras decided to adopt the plan to remain in the euro rather than the voluntary exit. But this created problems inside where some question the stay of the country in the euro and perhaps this is why he filed a no-confidence motion.’
 
Concluding, he argued that tax evasion is addressed effectively and that ‘we had a deficit in the first 6 months and at 10 months our revenue exceeded the estimated targets by 600 million euros.’