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made in institutional quality and good governance across euro area member states. 7. conclusions despite some missteps and delays in the implementation of the required reforms, greece has made notable progress since the start of the crisis in 2010. the implementation of economic adjustment programmes has eliminated several macroeconomic imbalances. the economy is now recovering and has started to rebalance towards the tradable, export - oriented sectors. the bank of greece expects that economic activity will remain on a positive growth trajectory, expanding by 1. 9 % in 2019 ( that is by 2. 3 % year - on - year in the second semester of 2019 ) and above 2 % in 2020. the catching - up effect from a long depression is projected to counterbalance the negative effect of a global slowdown. however, significant challenges and crisis - related legacies remain ( e. g. a high public debt ratio, a high npl ratio and high long - term unemployment ), while the brain drain and underinvestment weigh on the long - term growth potential. in order to contain future risks and address the remaining challenges and crisis legacies, the government should implement its reform agenda as soon as possible. moreover, the continuation of reforms is an obligation to which greece is bound in the context of enhanced surveillance, as well as a precondition for the activation of the medium - term debt relief measures. increased policy credibility through the implementation of reforms, the speeding up of privatisations and unblocking already approved investment plans will increase market confidence in the growth prospects of the greek economy. an acceleration of npl reduction through the adoption of a truly systemic solution will improve financing conditions for businesses and households as well as market confidence, and will accelerate investment and gdp growth. the conditions described above will facilitate greek government bonds regaining investment grade status, thus paving the way to the inclusion of greek bonds in the ecb ’ s recentlyenhanced asset purchase programme ( app ). this, in turn, would further lower borrowing costs for the greek economy, thereby boosting growth and improving debt sustainability. in such a benign scenario, growth rates higher than currently projected, above 3 %, could be achieved through increased investment. last but not least, in order to enhance real convergence and strengthen the international role of the euro, we must take steps to deepen emu. the only realistic way forward is to simultaneously promote risk - sharing and risk - reduction measures, to improve policy coordination and to make sure that economic rebala