A report by Greek lender Eurobank warns that the country does not have a “road map” for exiting the still imposed regime of capital controls, a leftover from last year’s dead-end negotiations with creditors through June and a hastily called referendum for July 5 on terms offered at the time.
The Eurobank report attempts to calculate the repercussions from capital controls a year later.
In looking to the future, the bank’s analysts cite three basic factors in gradually lifting all restrictions on capital in the Eurozone member-state.
A recent loosening of restrictions, with the highlight being no restrictions on new deposits flowing into the crisis-battered Greek banking system, is predicted to lead to the return of 15 to 20 billion euros into Greek banks’ vaults.
The report points to the “Cyprus model” as worthy of imitation by Greece, while emphasizing that the process for fully lifting all restrictions depends on the successful conclusion of evaluations by creditors of the third bailout program followed by the Greek government; an improvement in the country’s economic climate and growth prospects; as well as the absence of negative developments from external factors, such as Brexit, the Mideast refugee crisis and recent developments in neighboring Turkey.
