Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos made the following statement in reference to the completion of Giorgios Provopoulos’s term as governor of the Bank of Greece:
“Giorgios Provopoulos carried out his duties as Governor of the Bank of Greece with great success during the most difficult period of time in the last 40 years. Having a full sense of the institutional independence of the Bank of Greece, of his position in relation to the ECB, as well as of how critical his role was in managing and overcoming the crisis, he contributed decisively to the safeguarding, the recapitalization and the reconstruction of the Greek banking system; that is, protection of deposits and the prospects for funding Greece’s real economy.
He also contributed decisively to the decisions that led to the greatest reduction of public debt in international history, which Greece has achieved, laying the foundations for the long-term sustainability of the debt, which is now feasible through obviously simple changes in parameters.
As Finance Minister, I experienced, together with Mr. Provopoulos, unprecedented challenges of high pressure and risk, and I can thus have a personal view of his professionalism, his poise and his determination.
I wish him every success in the new phase of his career.”
June 11, 2014