In many ways this was to be expected: The past decade witnessed unprecedented rise in the volumes of both international trade and financial flows. Not even during the first golden age of globalization, in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, were so many countries trading so much with each other.
Ladies and gentlemen, The successful completion of the recapitalization of Greek banks in late 2015 has been a decisive first step towards safeguarding financial stability and restoring the intermediation role of banks. The capital adequacy ratio of the Greek banking sector stands (pro forma) at around 18% and compares favorably with the average for European Union banks.