Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by the Fondacion Chile 21, in Santiago, Chile.
In his remarks, Mr. Kourkoulas noted the historic sacrifices the Greek people have made to improve the country’s macroeconomic indicators.
“From the beginning of the crisis until today, Greece has achieved the greatest deficit rectification, as a percentage of GDP, of all the OECD countries in recent decades,” he stated.
He expressed his optimism that Greece will very soon achieve a primary surplus, and that “in 2014 we will pass into positive growth rates.”
He also pointed to the experiences of Latin American countries in the 1980s, stressing that it is important for Greece to learn the right lessons from those experiences.
Mr. Kourkoulas underscored that the Latin American countries that succeeded in emerging from the crisis more quickly did so because they operated in a climate of consensus domestically and externally, while also investing in the internationalization of their economies.
January 24, 2013