or even retreated. in particular, the world bank doing business report for 2015 ranked greece 60th among 189 countries ( a fall by two places ) while according to the imd world competitiveness yearbook 2016, greece fell by six places and is ranked 56th among 61 countries. more recently, the world economic forum ’ s global competitiveness report 2016 – 2017 ranked greece 86th among 138 nations, which corresponds to a fall by 5 places. but it should be noted that greece has achieved high rates of responsiveness to oecd recommendations consistently since 2011 ( oecd, going for growth 2013 & going for growth 2015 ). 5 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches b. monetary and banking developments on the other hand, hicp harmonised inflation was marginally negative in september ( - 0. 1 % ), having remained negative for the previous fourteen consecutive quarters, despite some marginally positive monthly spikes ( in july and august ) as a result of vat increases in a wide range of products and services ( figure 7 ). the convergence of hicp between greece and the euro area is mostly attributed to the higher indirect taxes imposed on the greek economy. 6 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches furthermore, according to greek banks ’ latest financial results for the first half of 2016, their capital adequacy was preserved at 18 %, comfortably above the eu average. at the end of june 2016, non - performing exposures ( npes ) remained relatively flat around 45. 1 %, about eight times the european average which is around 5. 7 %, while in absolute terms the total amount of npes reached €108 billion, an 9 % increase compared with the end of 2014. by sector, the highest ratios of non - performing exposures were recorded in the sectors of 7 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches agriculture ( 59 % ), commercial properties ( 55 % ) and tourism ( 54 % ). among the four main loan segments, the respective ratios for consumer, large business, smes and mortgage loans reached 55. 3 %, 29. 1 %, 59. 9 % and 44. 7 %, respectively ( figure 8 ). loans in delay of more than 90 days accounted for 30 % of npls, while this evidence is an early warning signal for credit risk developments in the banking system. despite the size of the problem, the capital base of the banking system – as mentioned above – remains strong, while in terms of provision coverage greek banks are well placed compared to

a 4th memorandum per se, not perhaps with any involvement of the imf, it will be a first for the esm, but we have every confidence as europeans in klaus regling and his excellent team that they will do a brilliant job. closing remarks in closing, i would like to stress that greece belongs to the core of europe. its future is within the eurozone, within the group of solidary countries, to the people of whom we, the greeks are grateful for their financial support. despite all these years of uncertainty and austerity, this is the overwhelming wish of the majority of the greek people still today, within the core of europe. this is our legacy as a nation that goes back to our history and our tradition and, more recently, expressed by a visionary greek politician, a great european statesman, who stood above political parties, konstantinos karamanlis, who showed the greek people the way forward, the european way. i would now like to invite the committee chairman and head of this mission or the vice president of the european parliament to say a few words and then have a productive discussion with all of you on the greek programme and beyond. thank you very much. appendix : the risks and prospects for the greek economy - june 2017 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches