Yannis Stournaras

Greece is close to regaining its investment-grade credit rating in 2023, after 12 years of relegation to junk status, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

"We think that 2023 is the year will get the investment grade," Greek central bank chief Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with the paper, urging the country's next government to maintain fiscal prudence.

Greece needs to follow prudent fiscal policy and continue reforms in order to ensure the confidence of the markets, Pierre Gramegna, the new executive director of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), pointed out on Thursday following his meeting in Athens with Finance Minister Christos Staikouras.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras met on Thursday with Andrea Enria, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Enria met with Stournaras and other members of the Bank of Greece's administration, as well as with representatives of the managements of Greek banks and the Hellenic Bank Association.

Central banker Yannis Stournaras issued a fresh message to the government and the opposition to preserve fiscal stability ahead of the elections, so as not to jeopardize the country's course back to investment grade, and another to the social partners to prevent the creation of an upward price-wage spiral.

The election risk is perhaps the greatest challenge for the course of Greek economy, fiscal stability and the conquest of investment grade, in a year when international uncertainties are running high.

Greece's pandemic-battered economy will bounce back even more quickly than its government projects and could return to pre-crisis levels this year, according to Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.

Advance payments from a European Union recovery fund will finance investments worth 3.3% of the country's gross domestic product (around 5.5 billion euros) this year, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday while also calling on Greek banks to make additional provisions to cover an expected new wave of nonperforming loans.

The burden of new nonperforming loans on Greek banks after the pandemic crisis is expected to come to 8-10 billion euros, relatively greater compared to that faced by other European credit institutions, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said on Friday.

Many eurozone banks underestimate credit losses they are likely to incur from the Covid-19 pandemic and supervisors will focus on asset quality this year, European Central Bank Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said on Friday. 

Central banker Yannis Stournaras voiced his optimism that the economy will recover in 2021, stressing that this crisis is not as big as the previous one.