FinMin Stournaras: Greek gov’t has plan B on Cypriot banks

“Cypriot banks cannot stay closed for long, otherwise the Cyprus economy will be ruined. A solution must be found in the next few hours, or else Greece will do what it has to do,” Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday.

Addressing

a joint meeting of the Parliament’s European and Economic Affairs Committees, the Greek minister said that in case that Cyprus failed to present immediately an alternative plan to open its banks in Greece, “Greece has a plan B which I cannot disclose. The effects on Greece are minimized. We take our measures,” Stournaras said.amna

The Finance Minister defended his stance on the Cyprus issue during last week’s Eurogroup meeting, saying that the decision was unanimous. “The Cypriot leadership participated in the decision after consultations with Mr. (Cyprus President Nicos) Anastasiades overcame an initial dead-end in negotiations. Another consultation occurred with Mr. (Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis) Sarris which resulted to a compromise proposal. No other solution was discussed,” Stournaras told the Parliamentary committee.amna

“Cyprus made a decision and we supported it,” Stournaras added. He noted that Cyprus was facing difficulties related with an overblown banking system. This is the reason why “other alternative scenarios were examined, all focusing on bank deposits. The Cypriot economy is very small compared with its banking system, and all other measures offered inadequate results,” he said.amna

He emphasized on Cyprus’ need to find 17 billion euros to recapitalize its banks and said that any borrowing above 10 billion euros would have made the country’s public debt not sustainable. The 7.0 billion euros missing from the package must not be borrowed money, he noted.

Opposition political parties strongly reacted to Mr Stournaras’ speech on the Cyprus issue. SYRIZA and other party deputies criticized the Finance minister for fully adopting the German position on Cyprus.

source: ΑΜΝΑ