European Commission mission chief for Greece Declan Costello on Wednesday repeated the EU executive’s message of staying on the “reform path”, speaking in Athens at a conference organized by the Commission’s representation office and the Athens-based Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE).
Costello said the “start-stop” phenomenon has plagued reforms in the country, and is the reason that has kept Greece in the clutches of an economic crisis over the past eight years, when other bailed-out Eurozone member-states returned to growth and fiscal well-being.
Putting his message into “numbers”, the Commission representative said Greece’s current 2 percent GDP growth rate should increase to 3.5 to 4 percent in the coming period.
