Third Greek rescue deal met with widespread scepticism

Third Greek rescue deal met with widespread scepticism

Press quote (Financial Times)
Christian Odendahl
14 July 2015

The effect of these contractionary measures on growth is disputed. Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, believes the economy will be 4.2 per cent smaller by 2018 as a result of further austerity.

"Greece's third bailout is bound to fail for the same reasons that the last two programmes did," Mr Odendahl said. "A government who . . . claimed to be ending austerity will now be forced to do the opposite."

..."This is hopelessly optimistic," Mr Odendahl said. "Even the [creditors'] more optimistic forecasts from April 2014 only predicted revenues [from privatisations] of €22.3bn until 2020."