Former Greek prime minister Lukas Papademos called a possible deal for Greek debt relief necessary, but “not enough” to lead to recovery.
Papademos, who served as an ECB vice-president and as the Bank of Greece (BoG) governor before leading a coalition government after then prime minister George Papandreou stepped down in late 2011, spoke at a conference on Friday organized by the Fletcher School in Boston.
The highly regarded former central banker said an agreement between Greece and creditors was crucial, both for easing strict fiscal policy slapped on Athens, but to also restore credibility to the Greek economy. Another advantage, he said, would be the immediate participation of liquidity-starved Greek banks in the ECB’s quantitative easing program.
Nevertheless, along with debt relief, he said deep reforms are still needed – in the country’s institutions and markets – in order to achieve a positive result.
Papademos, as numerous Greek politicians before him, ticked off a trio of reforms he said were imperative: a better quality and more effective public administration; a faster and more effective judicial system and improving the education system.
