European and global leaders now recognize the willingness of this government to make the program a success

We start, first of all, come to why you're in New York in a second. But let's just start.

The — do you — the welcome given to Angela Merkel today in Greece shows the very deep resentment by the Greek people at the austerity and what they perceive as the unfairness of the German position (ph), doesn't it?

NOTIS MITARACHI, GREEK DEPUTY DEVELOPMENT MINISTER: This has taken an unprecedented fiscal effort, Richard. We've seen our budget deficit cut all to half in two years. We're seeing the budget this year meeting its targets, and that's very positive.

We're seeing Greece having the lowest expense (ph) to GDP versus any other Eurozone country after all the measures. Of course, after six years of economic recession at unemployment 25 percent, there is natural you see some resentment. But it's very clear we welcome Merkel as a friend. Her visit today demonstrated the European —

QUEST: Well, hang on, hang on, hang on.

MITARACHI: — were pretty limited.

QUEST: Hang on, Minister. You say you welcome her as a friend, but there is a groundswell of support that does believe in Greece that these have been — these measures have been inflicted upon the country by another European country. Fair or not, that's what people believe.

MITARACHI: People see the hardest and fastest (inaudible) acceleration ever attempted in world history in six years of recession, which have never happened before. And that naturally causes disappointment.

But on the other hand, we're fully committed to the success of the program. Greece's role, it is within the Eurozone, and we're taking all the (inaudible) measures as fast as possible to make sure that we get back on track with the program.

This year numbers, if you look at the fiscal deficit this year, we're back on track. Some structural (ph) reforms were late and were — we're catching up now and we're seeing, in the end, things will work fine.

QUEST: So why does the Eurozone and the IMF yesterday in their meetings, why do they still hint very darkly that Greece needs to live up to its words? If you look at what they said yesterday, they say, acting is acting.

Greece needs to live up to the commitments. Now I understand and I accept that the huge amount that you have already done, but there are still dark suggestions that not enough and more needs to take place.

MITARACHI: This government has been in office (inaudible) 110 days, and we have cut staff (ph) a lot in these 110 days. I think if you hear any comments from European or global leaders, they all now recognize the willingness of this government to make the program a success. So we are catching up.

There's something that still need to be done, but now have specific timetables. And I think we're on track. We have agreed (ph) around 80 percent, I can give you a broad number, of the increment of fiscal measure required, and everybody recognizes that.

We need, in the next few weeks, as fast as possible, to close the gap with the remaining measures, agree them with the troika. But on the other hand, I have to say that if we don't put liquidity back into the market, if we don't see investment returning in the Greek economy, six years of recessions are very hard to tolerate.

MITARACHI: Only the cyclical element of the deficit will only recover with new investments. And that's what we're trying. We're trying to demonstrate to the global world that we are serious about our fiscal commitments.

We're serious about our structural commitments. We're going ahead with privatizations. Only last week we've done the best one and it's a wave of privatization coming. All that are done in order to rebuild confidence. Rebuilding confidence will remove the cyclical part of the deficit —

QUEST: All right.

MITARACHI: — which is now the primary problem.

QUEST: So let me ask you, as you put that point to the people you're meeting in New York, what do they say back to you?

MITARACHI: We're seeing investment (inaudible) returning. It's early days. I'm not going to say anything optimistic what's — it's a lot of hard work that needs to be done. But people are seeing recovery.

And actually, the Athens stock exchange has been one of the best performing markets in the world this year. Some people are seeing early signs of commitment, and that's what's important for us now, to demonstrate our commitment to the success of the program. And that will bring the early investors in.

QUEST: Minister, good to have you on the program. Thank you. Have a good — have a successful —

MITARACHI: Thank you so much.