Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis has posted a video defending the strategy to accelerate early repayment of Greece’s public debt.
The early repayment of €12.8 billion aims at reducing future obligations that might balloon after 2032, he said.
There has been criticism of early repayment of loans made when a bankrupt Greece was going through a financial crisis.
“Easy decisions take account of what happens today, difficult ones take account of the next generation,” Pierrakakis said. “Greece paid very dearly for the practice of transferring its burdens to the future. We will not do the same. We will not send the bill to our children again,” he added.
The finance minister took heat for the criticism that Greece is unnecessarily repaying early loans taken with the advantageous rate of 1.5%.
