BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of Eurozone member states have provided as much as 118 billion euro ($132 billion) of liquidity to Greek banks, which is around 66 percent of the country’s GDP, ECB head Mario Draghi said on Monday.
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Draghi said that the Eurosystem gave the Greek banks an opportunity to continue financing its economy and increasing significantly the amount of Greek cash replenishment with possible further support from Eurozone in case Greek banks are credit-worthy and have sufficient collateral.
"The situation in Greece reminds us again that the Economic and Monetary Union is an unfinished construction as long as we do not have all tools in place to ensure that all euro area members are economically, fiscally and financially sufficiently resilient. To complete the Economic and Monetary Union, we need a quantum leap towards a stronger, more efficient institutional architecture", added the ECB Head.
Greece was particularly hard-hit by the economic crisis in the late 2000s, accepting large loans from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund and entering multibillion-dollar debt.
Athens is currently in talks with its international creditors to reach a new bailout deal before the current program expires on June 30.