Attracting desperately needed capital investment to Greece in order to meet an extremely ambitious goal of boosting gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) by 11 percent in 2019, as well as covering new bond issues of up to four billion euros, were the two main “discussion points” of a Greek delegation attending a Manhattan investment forum on Monday.
The Greek representation at the 20th Annual Capital Link Invest in Greece Forum in New York City is led by Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, who addressed the event after a video message by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was shown.
In a far cry from his days as a radical leftist opposition leader before 2015, Tsipras called on would-be international investors to “again show confidence in a promising and, above all, safe investment destination”, i.e. post-bailout Greece. He referred, extensively, to financing tools now offered by a new development bank and credit lines extended by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
In his own video message, Alternate Finance Minister Giorgos Chouliarakis boasted of his coalition government’s record in posting hefty primary budget surpluses as a percentage of GDP over recent years, exceeding creditors’ targets, in fact.
Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) Deputy General Director Dimitris Tsakonas was also part of the Greek delegation, as the PDMA is expected to publicize its 2019 schedule in the coming weeks, including new bond issues worth at least four billion euros.
