Bank of Greece (BoG) Gov. Yannis Stournaras on Friday more-or-less confirmed widespread consensus in Athens, over the recent period, that remaining capital controls will be quickly scrapped, especially in case of a New Democracy (ND) election victory - something that occurred last Sunday.
"We consider that they (capital controls) no longer have any use," the influential central banker said, moments after concluding his meeting with new Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion in central Athens. As a result, the BoG is expected to recommend the abolition of all vestiges of capital controls, imposed in late June 2015 by the Tsipras government in the wake of shambolic five-month negotiations with international creditors and hours after a contentious referendum was declared.
In a direct "dig" at the previous leftist Tsipras government, Stournaras, a former finance minister, reminded that he has not visited the Greek government house in four-and-a-half years.
Turning to another "Sword of Damocles" hanging over Greece's financial system, namely, non-performing loans (NPLs) burdening systemic banks' balance sheets, Stournaras merely said that more "systemic solutions" are necessary.
Finally, he again reiterated that the BoG considers that Greece will not meet a creditor-mandated primary budget surplus goal of 3.5 percent for 2019, but rather will post a 2.9 percent (of GDP) performance. Finally, he said the 1.9 percent GDP growth forecast for 2019 stands.
