The Bank of Greece (BoG), as widely expected, will recommend the full lifting of whatever capital controls are still imposed in the country, as of September or October 2019, according to Reuters.
The Bank of Greece (BoG), as widely expected, will recommend the full lifting of whatever capital controls are still imposed in the country, as of September or October 2019, according to Reuters.
Reuters, echoing previous press reports by local media, said the BoG is studying the repercussions from such a move, with its recommendation to be forwarded to the Mitsotakis government and institutional creditors. A source merely told Reuters that draft legislation lifting capital controls will be conveyed to Parliament for ratification.
BoG Gov. Yannis Stournaras essentially hinted at the looming abolition of all capital controls in the days after the new center-right government was sworn-in after the July 7 election.
Remaining capital controls are a leftover from the shambolic negotiations between the then new Tsipras government, which was primarily represented by Yanis Varoufakis, and institutional creditors in the first half of 2015. Tsipras and his leftist government declared a contentious referendum in early July 2015 on creditors' - subsequently withdrawn - last offer to Greece. Announcement of the referendum was quickly accompanied by a government decision to impose strict capital controls, given that the European Central Bank (ECB) had, in the meantime, frozen its emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) credit line to Greece's systemic banks.
The unprecedented decision, in post-WWII Europe, aimed to prevent a "bank run" in Eurozone member-state Greece.