Thank you for your kind words and I wish you every success in your new role. In the past six months, actually it has been six months to the day since we got elected on July 7th 2019, I think we have ushered a new period of growth and effective structural reforms.
Our relationship with the Fund was not always an easy relationship, but I think we see eye to eye on certain important issues such as the need to reduce the primary surpluses in 2021. I would like to thank you again for your public statements and your support in this process.
I think the time has come to have this discussion with our Eurozone partners. We are a credible government, we are implementing reforms, we are in a low interest environment, our bond costs are even lower than Italy’s, and there is no reason why we should be constrained by these high primary surpluses.
We are looking forward to a completely new chapter in our relationship, which will be a relationship of positive cooperation.
And in that sense, I also welcome our common decision to close down the IMF office in Athens within the next months and continue to cooperate as a country that has actually exited from this tight framework of IMF supervision.
Again, thank you very much.
