At the beginning of 2013, Greek telecoms group OTE launched a €700m bond issue. The largest corporate debt transaction from a Greek borrower since the sovereign debt crisis erupted in 2010, the deal’s success offered stark proof of changing sentiment towards peripheral Europe.
For the past few years Greece, has been fighting its fiscal deficit with a harsh austerity programme. However, the limited success of this approach means that if the country is to make a sustainable recovery from its current economic crisis, its policies must focus more on instigating growth.
The manner in which the Greek restructuring deals have been carried out, and the preferred investor status given to the ECB and the central banks of other European countries, has left the private sector badly burned. Will this lead to a reluctance from private investors to re-enter the country, or the eurozone in general, thus hindering its recovery?
George Papaconstantinou, Greek finance ministerThings look very different for Greece compared to a year ago. A new government intent on change, and the help of the IMF, has brought the country back from the brink of bankruptcy - and served as a wake-up call for the rest of Europe in the process
Over the past decade, Greece's leading banks have expanded into south-east Europe. To remain competitive, however, they will now need to weather the financial storm and continue to focus on increasing their presence in the Balkans and the rest of eastern Europe. Writer Kerin Hope