Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced from Parliament early on Monday afternoon that whatever remaining capital controls in the country will be abolished.
He referred to cooperation with the Bank of Greece (BoG), led by former finance minister Yannis Stournaras, in lifting remaining restrictions dating from late June 2015, when the then leftist Tsipras government declared a contentious referendum for institutional creditors' - withdrawn - "last offer". The decision comes ahead of recently announced time-table to abolish the remaining, mostly mild, restrictions, as of Sept. 1.
Mitsotakis criticized the preceding government and premier, rival Alexis Tsipras, adding that a negative cycle that began four-and-a-half years ago with SYRIZA rise to power now ends.
He spoke, albeit previously unscheduled, during debate on the process of ratification of draft legislation harmonizing Greece's legal framework with the EU acquis regarding the protection of personal data in the Union, something that continuous delays in implementation translated into daily fines for the Greek state.
FinMin Christos Staikouras said the decision was backed by the BoG, Greek systemic banks and European banking regulators.
