yannis stournaras : measures to revive credit markets : best practices and pitfalls speech by mr yannis stournaras, governor of the bank of greece, at the imf / bank of slovenia high - level seminar on “ reinvigorating credit growth in central, eastern and southern european economies ”, portoroz, 26 september 2014. * * * the global financial crisis has impaired the ability of the financial system in the euro area to channel funds to the real economy, in particular for financing of long - term investment and smes. banks in the euro area have been particularly affected as the financial crisis was followed by a sovereign - debt crisis, which has set in motion a negative feedback loop between banks and sovereigns. as a result, over the past six years, bank credit to the real economy and, in particular to smes, has fallen dramatically in the eu. credit, which had been growing at double - digit growth rates before the global financial crisis, has contracted during the past few years. the crisis also hit banks in the central, eastern and southern european region as foreign bank engagement in the region declined and the over - indebtedness of households and businesses, a legacy of the earlier credit expansion, led to a large and rising volume of nonperforming loans. in some cases, those have reached, or exceeded, 20 per cent of total loans. as a result, bank credit in the region declined from average growth rates above 30 % in the period 2003 – 2008 to close to zero or even negative rates of growth in the recent years. bank credit is particularly important for economic growth in the eu. this situation is attributable to the fact that european economies are heavily dependent on bank financing. this dependence on banks is in contrast to the us, where capital markets play a bigger role in financing the economy. central, eastern and southern european economies are also bank - based financial systems in which capital markets remain relatively underdeveloped. consequently, bank deleveraging, combined with increased risk aversion on the part of investors, has affected the ability to finance sustainable growth throughout the region. a key characteristic of the economic recovery in the euro area at the present stage is the weakness of bank lending to the private sector in general and to companies in particular. this situation applies at both the aggregate level and for many individual countries. the situation appears to be better in the central, eastern and southern european region ( perhaps with the exception of

john iannis mourmouras : developments in greece recent monetary and financial speech by professor john iannis mourmouras, deputy governor of the bank of greece, at the governors ’ club, a forum comprising the governors and deputy governors of the central banks of sixteen southeast european and asian countries, 30 october 2016. * * * thank you madam chair, governors, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honour to be here with you in the holy city of jerusalem and i would like to thank the governor of the bank of israel, karnit flug, for inviting me to this high - profile meeting. in the same governors ’ club meeting in shanghai in may 2015, i was given the chance to comment on the latest economic developments in greece. then i raised the alarm against the government ’ s delaying the negotiations with our lenders. two months after my speech in china, greece unfortunately witnessed the cost of backtracking, namely the deposit outflows which destabilised the banking system, called into question our country ’ s eurozone membership and resulted in the introduction of capital controls, a bank holiday, bank recapitalisation and, of course, the recession in 2015 and this year. a. the real economy however, it is fair to say that the situation has stabilised since the conclusion of the third memorandum agreement in september last year. economic activity picked up in the last two quarters of this year, from a negative growth rate in 2015, to reach positive territory ( + 0. 2 % yearon - year ) in 2016 especially if receipts from tourism remain buoyant. bank of greece estimates for next year show an increase in real gdp by 2. 5 % and 3 % in 2017 and 2018 ( figure 1 and table 1 ). the key drivers of growth are expected to be private investment and exports of goods and services. 1 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches both the economic sentiment indicator ( figure 2 ) and the industrial confidence indicator ( figure 3 ) have recovered in the second and third quarter of this year, while in the first half of july 2016 the number of tourist arrivals in airports in greece increased by 7 % and is expected to reach an 2 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches unprecedented total of about 25 million visitors in 2016, which is more than double the greek population. 3 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches the unemployment rate remains elevated ( 23. 2 % in july 2016 and 23. 1 % in the second quarter of 2016 ), posing