Greek minister takes over as Eurogroup president, marking historic turnaround
Kyriakos Pierrakakis’ election to head Eurogroup underscores Greece’s remarkable economic performance
Greece’s finance minister was on Thursday named head of the Eurogroup, the body that helps shape euro zone policy, underlining his country’s turnaround since the years when it came close to crashing out of the single currency.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis saw off the rival Belgian candidate to become president of the assembly of finance ministers from the 20 countries sharing the euro.
Greece had to be bailed out three times between 2010 and 2015 by euro zone governments to avoid economic collapse after years of excessive borrowing and overspending.
It now has steady economic growth above 2 per cent, the highest investment rates in the euro zone, budget surpluses and public debt that, though still the highest in Europe, has been falling quickly for years.
“This election is an important symbolic moment for Greece and the euro area: we all remember the deep financial crisis that Greece had to go through and even questions were raised about Greece’s continued membership in the euro area,” European Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference.
“Now we see a remarkable turnaround with Greece being among the euro area’s best performing economies with a fiscal surplus and now with a Greek finance minister as the president of the Eurogroup,” he said.
