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ND leader: Continuing delays in review means QE inclusion becomes remote

By M. Hatziconstantinou
[email protected]

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) president Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday continued to hammer away at the embattled leftist Greek government, as yet another “unofficial deadline” to conclude the delayed second review of the Greek program appears fleeting.

Mitsotakis, whose party now enjoys double-digit percentage point leads over the ruling party in all mainstream opinion polls, again warned that delays in the second review will mean, among others, that Greek bonds will not be re-included in the ECB’s QE stimulus program.

Re-entering the Quantitative Easing program has been repeatedly cited by the Tsipras government as a goal in order to boost liquidity in the capital-starved Greek economy and business sector.

“It’s raining money and we’re holding an umbrella. This is the cost of a continuous negotiation, one intensely characterized by theatrics,” Mitsotakis said from Crete.

The latest “unofficial” deadline to conclude a staff review agreement between Athens and its institutional creditors was the March 20 Eurogroup, a target that now appears as entirely remote. Yet another date now cited is April 7.