Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Greece can achieve investment grade status within 2023, “if the Greek people trust us in a strong and stable government”, in Brussels, where he is for the Summit.

As the Prime Minister said, “the Commission’s proposal recognizes that we must have more flexibility as member states to negotiate with the European Commission a reasonable de-escalation of the public debt, without being limited by suffocatingly hard numerical rules”. He added that “this proposal seems to be embraced by most member states. Much faster progress is required, and the fiscal rules must be agreed upon before the end of the year. What cannot be accepted by Greece and many other Member States is to return to the previous fiscal rules, which will happen automatically if we do not agree on a new framework.

Specifically for the investment grade, he said “it is a given that we are in an environment of rising interest rates. Interest rates in Greece are not determined by the Bank of Greece but by the ECB, which calculates many parameters. But the main one is the ECB’s attempt to contain inflation. At this moment, if Greece can recover the investment grade, it will be able to de-escalate the cost of borrowing. Greece will be able to borrow and the banks will be able to borrow more cheaply and ultimately businesses and households will be able to borrow more cheaply. I believe that we can achieve the investment grade within 2023. I am sure that we can achieve the investment grade of 2023, as long as the elections trust our people and a strong and stable government emerges.”

watch statements live here