yannis stournaras : the metamorphosis of greece and the role of the insurance industry - guardians of the future? speech by mr yannis stournaras, governor of the bank of greece, at the economist first insurance forum, athens, 30 march 2017. * * * it is a great pleasure to be here today and have the chance to share with you my thoughts on the role of the insurance industry in the midst of challenging times lying ahead, not only in greece, but in the entire world. over the past seven years greece has indeed undergone a profound change in form, as the greek word metamorphosis succinctly describes. policies implemented in the context of the three adjustment programmes since 2010 have helped address large fiscal and external imbalances, turning double - digit deficits to positive balances in recent years. i would like to draw your attention to just two of them. first, adjusting for the effect of the recession, the improvement in the “ structural ” primary balance over the period 2009 – 2016 reached 17 percentage points of potential gdp, twice as much as the adjustment in other member states that were under eu - imf programmes. second, the current account in the last two years has been effectively in balance. this marks a significant turnaround of the current account balance by about 15 percentage points of gdp since 2008. alongside this impressive performance, remarkable structural improvements have been achieved in labour and product markets, as well as in public administration. these reforms are expected to boost the growth potential of the greek economy in the long - term through higher productivity and employment growth. the metamorphosis, however, is not complete. greece has not as yet managed to return to sustainable growth and a prerequisite for this is the completion of the second review with no further delays and the consistent and determined implementation of the programme. this is the current challenge as the intense reform effort has taken its toll on society, making the implementation of structural reforms difficult and at times even leading to policy reversals. the long - suffering greek pension system is a prime example in this respect : while at least three notable reforms have been legislated since 2010, many provisions remain to be fully implemented, while the system remains costly, distortive and unfair. this is the topic i would like to focus on during the first part of my speech, as i believe this is one of the areas where the insurance industry may have a major role to play in the future. in

: / / www. bankingsupervision. europa. eu / press / speeches / date / 2020 / html / ssm. sp200617 ~ 74d8539eda. en [ 4 ] keynote speech by luis de guindos, vice - president of the ecb, at the joint ecb and european commission conference on “ european financial integration and stability ”, frankfurt am main, 27 may 2021, https : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / press / key / date / 2021 / html / ecb. sp210527 ~ 6500964615. en. html [ 5 ] interview with christine lagarde, conducted by dominique lecoq and marc aubault on 29 july and published on 31 july, https : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / press / inter / date / 2020 / html / ecb. in200731 ~ 7df348b85b. en. html [ 6 ] statements by the governor of the bank of greece on the occasion of the world environment day on june 5th 2019 https : / / www. bankofgreece. gr / enimerosi / grafeio - typoy / anazhthshenhmerwsewn / enhmerwseis? announcement = 2d9a3a31 - a62f - 49a0 - ab3c - 4bfb9acc6267 and june 5th 2020 https : / / www. bankofgreece. gr / enimerosi / grafeio - typoy / anazhthsh - enhmerwsewn / enhmerwseis? announcement = 17fce009 - 57ce - 4a7e - bda6 - 65145811ec27 [ 7 ] omfif special report : central banks and climate change, https : / / www. omfif. org / wpcontent / uploads / 2020 / 02 / esg. pdf [ 8 ] omfif tweet following the special report : central banks and climate change https : / / twitter. com / omfif / status / 1156559680120008704 [ 9 ] the responsible banking principles of the united nations environment programme finance initiative https : / / www. unepfi. org / banking / bankingprinciples / [ 10 ] https : / / www