Parliament approves Stournaras' appointment as Bank of Greece governor

20:45 25/6/2014 - Πηγή: Matrix24

Parliament's Committee on state-owned enterprises, banks, public utility enterprises and social security agencies on Wednesday approved the appointment of Yannis Stournaras as the new governor of the Bank of Greece. The former Greek finance minister's candidacy was approved with

10 votes in favour, seven against and one abstention.

Votes in favour were cast by the two ruling coalition parties, New Democracy and PASOK, while main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA), Golden Dawn and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) voted against. The Democratic Left (DIM.AR) MP Yiannis Panoussis abstained and independent MP Nikos Nikolopoulos was not present.

Earlier, during the hearing before the committee for his appointment, Stournaras pledged that the Bank of Greece will take immediate action for non-performing loans amounting to 77 billion euros.
"The problem of handling the loans currently 'in the red' is major. The Bank of Greece will take immediate initiatives. The government and shareholders must coordinate on this issue," he said.

Stournaras said that the losses for Greek banks in the first quarter of 2014 came to 600 million euros and were chiefly the result of the large number of such NPLs, which had risen to 33.5 pct of total loans from 32 pct in the same period last year.
He said the total amount of NPLs was 77 billion euros, of which 42 billion euros were business loans, 25 billion euros were mortgage loans and 10 billion euros were consumer loans.

On the bright side, he added, an improvement in the climate of confidence in the country had helped boost deposits by 11 billion euros.
Both Stournaras and the new Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis appeared confident about the prospects of a "significant recovery of the Greek economy" and said all the signs were encouraging, while stressing the need to continue the stability programme and reforms.
Stournaras noted that the Greek economy was starting to stabilise after four years of fiscal adjustment and was now near the turning point where the negative climate would be reversed and growth would recover. "All the indices are encouraging, they show signs of growth, and if we correct the deficits then the country will perform the miracle. No other OECD member-state has achieved a cyclically corrected deficit of 21 pct. This is a real achievement of the Greek people," he stressed.

At the same time, he emphasised the need for "macroeconomic stability" and to continue the adjustment programme and reforms, possibly at an even faster rate than before, while pointing to encouraging signs of a recovery in employment and exports of services, especially in tourism, and predicting a recovery within the year for exports of goods. He also claimed that a recovery of business investment as "feasible" provided the interest of foreign investors was maintained.
Hardouvelis, on his part, made his first appearance in Parliament and strongly supported Stournaras' candidacy for central bank governor, as well as praising his decisive contribution as finance minister to restoring Greece's credibility and ensuring its successful exit to the markets.

source: ΑΜΝΑ