The President of the Eurogroup, Mario Centeno, said on Wednesday 7 March that the Hellenic Republic was “ready to stand on its own two feet”, suggesting that it does not need a preventative line of credit from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to be triggered if needed, when it comes out of the third bailout plan, which is scheduled for this August.
This emerged in an interview between Centeno and the Athens News Agency. The Eurogroup President welcomed the fact that the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is implementing the measures set out in the programme within the agreed timetable. Centeno also welcomed Greece's return to credibility on the markets, having successfully carried out a seven-year bond issuance on 8 February (see EUROPE 11957).
However, he acknowledged that Greece was still “sensitive to domestic and external shocks”, adding that its exit from the programme and continuation of socio-economic reforms would be closely monitored.
Concerning this, the Eurogroup President is waiting for Athens to present its post-programme strategy, as called for by Pierre Moscovici, the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, in his speech before the Vouli, the single-chamber Greek Parliament, on 9 February (see EUROPE 11958).
Finally, Centeno confirmed that the technical work was still underway concerning the 'French mechanism', which will adjust the repayment level of the Greek debt in line with economic growth ('growth-adjustment mechanism'). This measure will be adopted only if the programme is concluded successfully and it is necessary to ensure the viability of the Greek debt. The time has not yet come to take position on these points, he concluded.
Readers may recall that on 22 January of this year, the Eurogroup finance ministers reached political agreement on the conclusion of the third monitoring mission of the financial assistance programme (see EUROPE 11944). The payment of an aid sub-tranche of €5.7 billion, approved by the 'Eurogroup' working group (EWG) of the Council of the EU, must now be signed off by the ESM council of administration. The fourth and final monitoring mission began last week (see EUROPE 11973). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)