GREECE TO SCRAP CAPITAL CONTROL RESTRICTIONS

GREECE’S prime minister says the country will soon lift the last remaining restrictions imposed on bank depositors more than four years ago at the height of the country’s financial crisis. Kyriakos Mitsotakis said yesterday that the removal of the restrictions, known as capital controls, next week will end a long “cycle of insecurity.” The restrictions mostly concern movement of funds abroad, for both individuals and businesses. Greek authorities imposed the measures in June 2015 to stop a developing bank run as depositors panicked by the government’s escalating clash with its bailout creditors made mass cash withdrawals. At first, depositors were only allowed to withdraw €60 (R1 018) a day, but the limit was gradually relaxed and then scrapped. Greece was kept afloat by international bailouts from 2010 to 2018. | AP