Financial market uncertainty had lessened following further measures taken by European governments, though social unrest in the Middle East and North Africa was keeping markets on edge. Against this background, the Board saw little need to change the level of interest rates at its February, March and April meetings. In May, the Board again held the cash rate steady.
Against this backdrop, Greece has implemented a brave programme of economic adjustment that has eliminated fiscal and external deficits and improved competitiveness that, between 2009 and 2016, resulted in the shrinkage of the general government deficit by approximately 14 percentage points of GDP and to the improvement of the primary balance, adjusted for the effect of the business cycle, by about 17 percentage points of potential GDP.