Samaras in Bloomberg: “My immediate source of concern is cash, liquidity”

“We anticipate bonds and t-bills’ interest rates to decline, and further enhancement of liquidity through investment and privatizations,” Samaras added.

Talking about the first bond issue after four years of bond market exile, Mr. Samaras explained that “we did not want to borrow any more than we needed”.

“We don’t need more money. We have no fiscal gap, we have no financing gap and, on top of this, we have the ability to go to the markets if necessary” Prime Minister added noting also that the economic indicators show that Greece can stand on its own feet without further assistance from the European partners and the IMF.

“We reached rock bottom and now we can only go up” Antonis Samaras said confident about the future.

Referring to next bond issue, Prime Minister stressed that there is no rush for such a move saying that “In the future, we will ask for the money we want, at a lower rate,”.

Prime Minister also referred to the issue of debt relief saying that he counts on European partners that they "will honor their part of the agreement " made in 2012 to reduce the Greek debt when Greece reach primary surplus.

“If Greece meets the targets, which it has already, the lenders will provide additional debt relief; this was a decision, which was taken in November 2012,” Samaras said. “We did our part of the job, we expect them to do theirs.” He declined, though, to say what kind of debt relief Greece is asking for.

Prime Minister pointed out in his interview the investments made in Greece by companies such as Armonk, the IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ).

According to Antonis Samaras , the narrowing of the budget deficit and public administration reforms in the labor, goods and service markets, make Greece a more attractive destination for investors. “Greece was giving investors red tape treatment, now we are giving them red carpet treatment,” Samaras said. 

"We expect by 2015 that we will have not simply primary surplus, but that we’re going to have a fiscal surplus. This means we will be able on our own to pay our debt, without borrowing at all. There are very few European countries that are doing this today,” Samaras said. 

My immediate source of concern is cash, liquidity. It’s crazy when you have companies that can really succeed, but lack access to finance. ” Samaras added.

Talking about the successful recapitalization process of banks, Prime Minister believes that this will restore confidence in the Greek economy highlighting that ”Greek banks returned to the market. The recap of the financial sector will improve psychology and allow liquidity to increase.” 

Prime Minister believes that the great assets for restoring Greek economy is tourism and natural sources saying that ”We have to capitalize on our advantages: Natural environment, tourism, and natural resources. We’ve got magnesium, bauxite, rare earths, natural gas and oil, we can exploit.” 


Antonis Samaras referring to the social tensions that his government faces due to economic crisis said ”What keeps me awake is safeguarding democracy, bringing unemployment down, and fighting extremism,” adding that “These three things can make you have sleepless nights.” 

Also, Prime Minister was asked on the next national elections and he stressed that his majortiy in parliament is safe until 2016 when the next parliamentary elections are scheduled. He also added that he is confident that Greece will avoid early elections and potential political instability.