After 9 years of economic hardship, we can say with confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the Greek economy. The economy’s progress during the last eight years of adjustment has been really impressive, both in terms of fiscal and external adjustment of more than 15 percentage points of GDP. The huge twin deficits turned into surpluses.
But there were three lasting legacies of this period: ·  monetary policy was seen as a separate, specialised function, with a comparative advantage clearly distinguishable from fiscal policy;  ·  it required a nominal anchor;  ·  the framework should constrain the decision-making process (i.e. it was not just a technical or analytical construct).