Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE RISK OF a disorderly Greek eurozone exit has receded substantially, Greece’s central banker said today as he urged for the aggressive pursuit of pending structural reforms.
“The risk of a Grexit accident has been drastically reduced,” Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos said in an interview to AFP, whilst noting progress on reforms which is enabling the country to enter a “virtuous circle”.
Provopoulos, 62, called for a “more aggressive” implementation of structural reforms tied to billions of euros in EU-IMF bailout aid.
“We have quite a long agenda of things to do, regarding privatisations, reform in the product and services market, improving the tax collecting mechanism which has a number of weaknesses and so on,” Provopoulos said.
He noted that in the first phase of the programme “although the country placed emphasis on fiscal consolidation, on structural reforms the efforts were quite incomplete,” he said. “As a result, the GDP reduction was much higher than initially anticipated.”
Senior auditors from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are returning to Greece later this month to gauge the progress of reforms.
Their report will determine whether Greece will access a scheduled slice of €2.8 billion from its international creditors due later this month.
Greece is trying to emerge from a six-year recession that has brought layoffs and public budget cuts to hundreds of thousands of Greek households.
European Union leaders agreed in December to give Greece €49.1 billion in return for additional austerity measures, breaking a six-month stalemate.
But the European Commission warned at the time that “very large” implementation risks remained.
The fiscal overhaul has sparked waves of strikes and protests, many of them violent. Another general strike has been called by unions for February 20.
But economic indicators have improved since June, when the country emerged from a period of political uncertainty capped by back-to-back elections before a coalition government could be formed.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Probably the right decision but very tough for the families. Locking up the pilot would serve no useful purpose.
What is needed is a complete review of airshow regulations to minimise the risk of something like this ever happening again.
You’ve got to feel for everyone involved . There’s a lot of lives ruined including the pilot who has to live with his decisions for the rest of his life. What a tragedy.
No winners here
So this show-off is allowed to walk away after killing 11 people while messing up a solo performance, to aggrandise himself in front of others?! I’m sure he didn’t mean to kill anyone, but that’s what manslaughter is. He slaughtered.
It’s not the first time he’s been accused of recklessness either…
@Bi88les: car racing ,motor cycling facing ,speed boat acing all these sport’s and others have risk’s .Its a awful thing what happened at that air show but it was a accident
have your say