ECONOMY

Stournaras says lost competitivness regained, fiscal adjustment almost complete and growth to come in 2014

Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras repeated on Monday his belief that Greece would exit its recession, which began in 2008, next year.

Speaking at an event in Athens, Stournaras was upbeat about Greece’s prospects. “Whether we like it or not, Greece is changing,” he said. “It is changing for its own good and the good of the European project. The survival of the euro is down to the fact that Greece has been able to stand on its feet.”

Stournaras said that Greece was two thirds of the way towards completing its fiscal adjustment, which foresees it producing a 4.5 percent of GDP surplus by 2016.

He added that Greece had made up all of the competitiveness gap that had built up between its euro entry and the start of the crisis in 2009.

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