Finally, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the Greek economy. Over the summer the government sold its first international bond since 2014, both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s upgraded the sovereign’s credit rating, and the International Monetary Fund approved a conditional loan valued at up to $1.6bn.
Meanwhile Greece’s big four banks have made great strides in plugging the capital holes identified by EU regulators two years ago: they have hoisted their risk-weighted-capital ratios to between 16% and 18%, far above the Basel III 8% threshold. Although National Bank of Greece (NBG) and Piraeus had help from the Eurozone and Greek bailout funds, they have already started repaying these loans, having handed back €2bn in February.
