Yannis Stournaras

Greek central banker Yiannis Stournaras said the European Central Bank (EBC) was prepared to support the Eurozone, if necessary.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on Friday appeared confident that the government is close to wrapping up a bailout review with international creditors that will pave the way for debt talks, adding that he expected to see "white smoke" from a December 5 Eurogroup meeting.

Yiannis Stournaras believes a timely adjustment of Greece’s debt is necessary, and in a statement today advocated lowering the target for a primary surplus of 2% in order to reduce the tax burden, explaining that doing so would enhance Greece’s growth prospects and facilitate its entrance into the financial markets.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras announced on Thursday that the capital controls will ease further, and Kathimerini understands that anonymous companies (SAs) will soon be allowed to open accounts at domestic banks, which is currently forbidden.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday linked the subject of debt-easing measures to the implementation of reforms in Greece, while central banker Yannis Stournaras stated that the country will need more than just short-term debt lightening measures to be allowed into the quantitative easing program (QE).

Greece will soon ease capital controls further but full liberalization will depend on progress in easing the country's debt burden, which is also a precondition for entering the ECB's asset buying scheme, central bank chief Yannis Stournaras said.

Central Bank Governor Yannis Stournaras said Greece's European partners must urgently outline debt relief measures to help boost economic recovery and facilitate its return to financial markets in 2018.

European partners promised earlier this year to specify debt relief measures to make Greece's public debt, the highest in the eurozone, sustainable.

Greece will not be able to return to credit markets as planned without debt relief, the struggling country's central banker said late on Monday.

"If the Greek debt is not judged to be viable, the expected [return to the markets] in 2018 is not possible," Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras told a business lobby.

Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stepped up his dispute with Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on Saturday by setting out in an op-ed the four reasons for which the latter should resign.

In an article in newspaper “Efimedida Ton Syntakton”, former Greek Finance Minister Yianis Varoufakis responds to the allegations levelled against him by the governor of the Bank of Greece (BoG), Yiannis Stournaras during his deposition before the parliamentary committee on transparency. In his article Varoufakis calls for the removal of Stornaras from his position as governor.