Yannis Stournaras

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras expects the country's economy to contract by 6% of gross domestic product this year as a result of the coronavirus crisis, but this could be followed by a rebound of 5.5% in 2021, he told a committee in Parliament on Monday.

The Greek government has proposed the reappointment of Yannis Stournaras as governor of the Bank of Greece, the country's central bank, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Finance Ministry's estimates about the impact of the coronavirus on the Greek economy this year are at the optimistic end of the range of projections expressed to date and near those of the Bank of Greece, according to the Stability Program Athens submitted to the European Commission last Thursday.

The Greek economy will shrink much less than "extreme" scenarios projecting a 10 percent or more contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) this year, the head of the country's central bank said on Tuesday.

As the end of the lockdown is already in sight in Greece the day after the coronavirus outbreak is already stirring extreme concern in the government, among financial players and analysts, and not least in the Bank of Greece with the governor of the central bank, Yannis Stournaras, scampering to come up with 10bn euros to bolster the Greek banking system and avert yet another bank crisis.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on Wednesday spoke openly on Bloomberg in favor of a so-called "corona bond," warning that unless joint fiscal action is taken Europe will face a new debt crisis.

Greek banks' 2020 reduction target for nonperforming loans is about to be revised, due to the extraordinary conditions and the major uncertainty caused by the coronavirus epidemic, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras noted in a report published on Friday.

The Bank of Greece's baseline scenario for 2020 is zero growth, compared with its previous estimate for 2.4 percent, according to a report released by Governor Yannis Stournaras on Friday.

After eight months in power the government finds itself in a rough patch as it must grapple with a variety of intractable issues at once.

It must wage battles on a number of fronts in an unstable international environment with constant vicissitudes and with the main opposition party on the attack on various important issues.

European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni is arriving in Athens on Thursday for a series of meetings with key officials in the context of the European Semester, the EU's cycle of economic and fiscal policy coordination among member states.