The president and managing director of Mytilineos, Evangelos Mytilineos, expressed his optimism regarding Greece's course in the coming years, speaking at a conference organised by think tank 'Kyklos Ideon' on Tuesday.
"We have a unique political opportunity, for as long as I can remember. We have unique political stability, a prime minister who absolutely controls the state, the government and the party and has the ability to assume any political cost in order to proceed with the reforms. I don't know when this opportunity will come again. Now is the time. Serious and painful reforms must be done in 12 to 18 months. Because in the second two years, things will be more difficult, polls play a more important role than policies," Mytilineos said.
In response to a question about the possibility of the company leaving the country, Mytilineos emphasised that "nobody is leaving Greece, nor are we going to load 10 factories on our backs and leave" and added: "This is one thing and the dual listing is another (that is, entering another stock exchange abroad at the same time). The State and the market should be happy when companies based in Greece can grow and prosper. It is not something that should be misunderstood".
Referring to international developments, he underlined that:
- If the inflation target in the EU were increased from 2% to 3%, many problems would automatically be solved. The 2% target is a noose around the neck.
- Bulgaria's imposition of a tax on natural gas transiting through its territory shows the lack of a common economic and energy policy. The way Bulgaria is acting is clearly criminal.
- Europe is behind the US and instead of taking steps forward it is going backwards. It raised the flag of the green transition but Germany is opening one carbon-fuelled plant after another because the scenario of having cheap Russian gas for 100 years did not "work out".
- After many years we see a shift in economic policy from the private economy back to the state.
- The markets believe that the Russian-Ukrainian front will "freeze" for some time, at least for next winter, and that in Israel the most likely scenario is towards limiting the crisis to the Israel-Gaza borders and less in Lebanon and Syria. That's why both stocks and bonds are holding up.
