Moreover, the new ERM parity agreed with our EU partners was broadly consistent with Greece’s fundamentals and costs and productivity levels and satisfied the markets.
And judging from Greece’s record of the last 6-7 years: an annual growth of GDP 3.9%, inflation at the end of 2003 at 3.1% only 1 percentage point above the Euroarea average, and a fiscal  2  BIS Review 5/2004  deficit at 1.5% of GDP in 2003, the exchange rate with which the drachma entered the ERM in 1998, and the subsequent conversion rate into the euro in 2001, were appropriate and reflected Greece’s overall competitive conditions.