Second, competitiveness has been restored. Greece has now recovered all of the cost competitiveness it had lost relative to its trading partners since joining the euro area. Cost competitiveness has improved by more than 25 per cent since 2009. According to the ECB’s Harmonized Competitiveness Indicators, Greece has been one of the best performers in improving labour cost competitiveness over the period 2000–2014.
We as banking regulators then engaged in very informal discussions with banking representatives. We drafted proposals that made sense to both banks and banking regulators. This was possible because we applied a simple principle: good governance banks want a level playing field based on sound risk management practices.