Photo: Naftemporiki
"It must be clear to Greece that there is no alternative to the agreed restructuring programme if it wants to remain a eurozone member," said the board member of the European Central Bank Jörg Asmussen for the German edition Handelsblatt. The financial expert is well aware of the general feeling in Europe and his statement shows that the creditors of Greece are not willing to wait long for the country to find its economic identity. Asmussen has long been the right-hand man of the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and today, he holds the position of chief economist of the European Central Bank - a post Jürgen Stark held not long ago.
Many analysts note that Asmussen expresses the position of the very President of the European financial institution Mario Draghi and Greece must listen very carefully to his words. Reading between the lines, this is Asmussen’s indirect response to Alexis Tsipras, who on the day of receiving the mandate to form a government, began sending letters to refuse to implement the agreed reforms and to call for a new recovery programme.
At the same time, Cyprus’ government and representatives of the financial system are tense because it is still unclear which way the wind of change will blow in Greece.The Finance Minister of the country Vaso Siarli urged Greek politicians to demonstrate common sense and composure in order "not to lose what we have achieved so far." She stressed that everyone must take responsibility according to the position held to reach a positive result. The political uncertainty in Greece is seriously affecting the financial system of Cyprus and the black hole in the balance sheets of local banks, which has formed after the debt haircutting procedure PSI, is growing due to the surge of non-performing loans. The deepening of the Greek crisis has affected the most three Cypriot banks - The Bank of Cyprus, Central Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank. They need a total of 20 billion euro recapitalization and in the meantime, they have undertaken to minimize their operating costs.
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