Close attention to the details of implementation and a solid record of working closely with Troika officials to tweak Programme conditionality in order to avoid self-defeating actions also helped in delivering this outcome. (Examples relating to the banking sector included small but important operational adjustments to the deleveraging path and the timing of stress tests).
While the Programme’s aggregate story thus ends well, it is instructive to consider in some detail how it might have been better designed. I will focus on some of the financial aspects, which, after the fiscal component, were indeed the Programme’s centre-piece. The bank bond issue Much has been made of the issue of “burning bondholders”, and rightly so.