Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-06-12

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] SYRIZA leader addresses his party's parliamentary group

[02] Reform effort must continue, Bank of Greece report

[01] SYRIZA leader addresses his party's parliamentary group

"(The war) ahead of us will be hard," Tsipras said addressing his party parliamentary group, adding that the main priority will be the maintenance of leadership and political initiative.

Tsipras also forecast critical developments for the country this summer; either new tough measures will be implemented in autumn and those appointed by Germany will undertake the debt negotiations or there will be a new government with a fresh mandate from the people, which will be responsible to negotiate with lenders.

Tsipras noted that his party is open to the society, to the different, to the differentiated, and to people who still treat them with suspicion as well as alliances and allies that promote even marginally the overturning, the change and the liberation of the country from the memoranda entrapment.

He also sent out a message to those who see SYRIZA as a key opponent in their plans, saying that the party does not intend to step back.

He also harshly criticised the choice of Yannis Stournaras as the next Bank of Greece governor and noted that "we will not be watching them destroy the country, playing with people, institutions and democracy without doing anything."

Moreover, he forecast that the government is preparing a new memorandum based on various excuses, such as the funding gap or the new haircut of debt.

Finally, he accused Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of escalating the tension and increasing political instability instead of reinforcing the smooth functioning of democracy.

[02] Reform effort must continue, Bank of Greece report

In its last report on monetary policy, submitted to Parliament, George Provopoulos said an improving course of the Greek economy, which allowed the country to return to international capital markets, was not self-evident. For 2015, the Bank of Greece expects that the country's GDP would rise by around 0.5 pct, however, it warned that any change in policy could lead to a new exclusion from markets and return of the country to a period of economic instability. "This danger should not be underestimated, as the return of the country to international markets reflected mainly the fact that markets discounted the continuation of fiscal and reform effort," Provopoulos said in the report.

The central bank noted that a restructuring of the economy and reforms should continue with greater determination in all sectors, while economic policy must now convince that there was no complacency or backtracking, but it was ready to go all the way, creating a dynamic and outgoing economy.

Commenting on the country's banking system, Provopoulos noted it was necessary to have a more efficient management of non-performing loans and that the system has an obligation to contribute to the restructuring of the economy.

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