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A growth rate of 1.9 percent is way too small for a country like Greece, especially as the rest of Europe's performance is so much more robust. This is, after all, a country that shed 25 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in the course of a decade. What we should be seeing, therefore, is the effect of a tightly wound spring, whereby a virtuous cycle of growth begins and only gets faster with time. Instead, we're hobbling along at 1.9 percent, the slowest rate an economy can achieve after hitting rock bottom.

One crucial question is to what extent Greece can achieve high growth rates when it is being held back by such ludicrous primary surplus targets. These are most certainly having a decelerating effect, but are unlikely to change given the current political situation in Germany.

However, if we want to hit more ambitious growth targets, the change needs to...