Growth, more debt relief are priorities

Last Thursday was quite a shock for the Greeks due to the Eurogroup decision to put off the disbursement of the final bailout tranche of 15 billion euros and the European Central Bank ruling out a waiver extension and a Greek inclusion in its bond-buying program, also known as quantitative easing (QE). Analysts tell Kathimerini that it was the government's decision to arbitrarily extend the value-added tax discount on five islands that has extinguished any hope left for the waiver and joining the QE program.

However, they add that the ECB might resort to an "indirect" QE after the Greek program ends, stressing that what matters most is that Greece introduces growth-boosting measures.

QE exclusion hardly came as a surprise, as Yvan Mamalet, senior European economist at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking, tells Kathimerini: "We had a long-held view that...

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