European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Managing Director Klaus Regling over the weekend insisted that the Tsipras coalition government's decisions and actions in the first half of 2015 cost Greece up to 200 billion euros, while nevertheless adding that the country is now - three years into the third and last bailout - on the right course.
Regling's high-profile comments were published in the weekend edition of the Athens daily "Kathimerini", coming a day before the third memorandum adjustment program officially ends.
"Greece not only suspended but overturned the reforms (taken to date) in the first half of 2015, a development costing up to 200 billion euros," he said, in an article with his byline.
At the same time, he said the conclusion of the third and last bailout finds Greece "on the right course" to ensure that its economy is viable and competitive, under the conditions that it continues to modernize and become more open.
