OPINION

Breathing room

Even Greece’s biggest critics find it hard to deny that the debt-hit country has achieved an unprecedented fiscal turnaround within a very short period of time.

Sure, progress in promoting the structural reforms which are badly needed in the economy is slow. In fact it is often undermined by the Greek political system itself.

However, it would be unwise to raise expectations too high – and that also goes for the country’s foreign partners and creditors. It is wrong to expect a nation to do a 100-meter sprint race right after they have completed a marathon.

Should troika officials put on a dogmatic or arrogant face in the upcoming negotiations, they could be pushing the country down a long and costly path.

Greece has come a long way, but as the country’s Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis said Thursday, it desperately needs room to breathe.

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