Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, addressing the OECD's ministerial session in Paris on Wednesday (7.05), said that "Greece is returning to the markets gradually and carefully, it is emerging from the crisis and setting out its growth strategy." He added that "through an extrovert growth strategy, we are aiming to maximise the benefits from our cooperation with our partners." He stressed that the two main causes of the crisis, namely the twin deficits (the deficit of the general government and the deficit of the current account balance), which represented about 15 % of GDP, have been eliminated.

Referring to the improvement in Greece's competitiveness, the minister said that after four years of "painful efforts," Greece has probably achieved "the most impressive turnaround in the OECD's history, in terms of fiscal deficit, current accounts deficit and competitiveness." In terms of demand, he said that Greece's new strategy for growth is based on balanced budgets, lower consumption, both in the private and public sectors, bigger investments and exports.