china daily雙語新聞：希臘財(cái)長明年將是生死攸關(guān)的一年
Next year will be “a make or break” year for Greece’s future as a member of the eurozone, the country’s finance minister has said, warning Europe’s leaders that Athens still faces “the possible risk” of crashing out of the currency bloc.
“We can make it next year if we can stick to the programme agreed with the EU and IMF,” Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with the Financial Times.
However, “the break would be if the political system finds the situation too difficult to handle”, he added, referring to the danger of social unrest about austerity that could force the two left-of-centre parties to bring down the governing coalition.
“What we have done so far is necessary but not sufficient to achieve a permanent solution for Greece,” Mr Stournaras said. “The issue now is implementation.”
The minister’s warning pierces the prevailing optimism about Greece, whose 10-year bond yields fell to an 21-month low on Wednesday after the European Central Bank said it would once again accept the country’s sovereign debt as collateral.
Standard and Poor’s upgrade of Greece’s sovereign rating by six notches following last week’s successful debt buyback has given the coalition government a boost, though the country’s bonds retain junk status.
Mr Stournaras said Athens would focus next year on an unprecedented crackdown on tax evasion, meet strict targets for privatisations, and remove bureaucratic obstacles to inward investment.
This week’s disbursement of a €34.2bn aid payment by international lenders after five months of tough negotiations marked “a vote of confidence” in the government’s capacity to deliver fiscal and structural reforms, Mr Stournaras said, despite opposition from trade unions and anti-bailout political parties.
“Our partners’ decision to give us so much money – more than we expected – removes a large part of the risk.”
However, he warned: “We still face the possible risk of bankruptcy.” Any failure by Greece to honour its debt to international creditors would spell the country’s inevitable exit from the euro.