Stournaras: We will reach EU GDP level before 2045

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras estimates it will take less than 20 years for Greece’s GDP to reach the same level as the rest of Europe.

In an interview with the Dutch newspaper NRC, he was asked how many years it would take for Greece’s GDP to return to pre-crisis levels.

Stournaras replied that “we are more ambitious than that. We want, in less than 20 years, to reach the same level as the rest of Europe. We are growing faster than the European average. That is why I am convinced we will achieve it.”

Responding to the remark that “Greece, in terms of purchasing power, ranks among the last in Europe, between Bulgaria and Latvia,” Stournaras stressed that incomes are growing slowly.

He also underlined: “We are no longer at the point where we were before the crisis. But the economy then was a bubble; it was not real. Wages have become more competitive, but we still have a lot to do to improve structural competitiveness. Look, for example, at public infrastructure, the justice system, the education system, and the fact that even people with high skills do not meet the needs of the labor market. Also, some sectors of the economy remain too closed to new entrants.”

Source: pagenews.gr