"Greeks cannot bear any more sacrifices and burdens"

"Greece cannot go on with the policy of continuous sacrifices. They are very deep and lead to the decline of domestic demand and strong reductions in economic activity. Today, the burden and the reduced income of an average Greek is twice what the average Portuguese has to sacrifice and three times more than the average Spaniard."

The head of the Task Force for Greece, Horst Reichenbach, was quite revealing on the podium of the ACCI Board meeting.

He did not hesitate to wonder publicly about who could proceed to invest in Greece today, underlined the uncertainty regarding the country’s remaining in the euro and expressed his optimism that ultimately the issue of the PSI "will be resolved, if not within the next few days, certainly in the next few weeks…"

Reichenbach said the big challenge for Greece is to solve its liquidity problem, which can be changed "upon completion of the PSI and the new memorandum, and just after the recapitalization of banks."

He stressed that the work of the Task Force is the reform of Public Administration and the changes in taxation, to which it proceeds together with the Greek authorities, the social partners and the IMF.