Positive growth expected in 3rd quarter, FinMin Hardouvelis tells CNBC

Foreign investors show great interest in the Greek investment programme and the privatization of some of the government’s assets, as they see there is only upside potential in the country, Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis told US network CNBC in an interview and stressed he expected a positive growth rate in the third quarter of the year.

“We have seen that there is a lot of interest in the Greek ports, airports, other companies. People are lining up now to buy assets. We didn’t have this experience earlier,” he said. “Now we have it. This is because investors do see there is only upside potential in the country. The economy has stabilized after a lengthy, lengthy recession of six years so their bet will succeed."

He noted that many sectors of the economy, such as tourism, perform well and added “We expect that we are going to see positive growth for the first time in the third quarter.”

Asked whether Greece needs a new bailout programme, he said: “The (bailout) program did have benefits in the sense that lenders forced Greece to actually do structural reforms. After a point one needs to do this on their own and to me structural reforms is something one ought to be vigilant (on) and the population has to own them."