Greece has one last chance to stay in the euro area and must make a "maximum effort" to avoid being brought back several decades, warned Wednesday the central bank Hellenic.
Painting a picture severe the nation's finances, the Bank of Greece said that the failure to achieve its fiscal targets, delays in implementation of reforms and strong economic contraction had questioned his recent claims about the sustainability of the country's debt.
"The country must avoid at all costs further delays or deviations from objectives; every effort is needed to do better than the targets," said the Bank in its interim report on monetary policy.
"The current situation is the most critical period of Greek history of the postwar period. What is at stake is whether the country will remain within the euro area."
The new prime minister, Lucas Papademos, promised to push reforms forward, although he met a mixed support for the main parties and trade union opposition to the new austerity plan which he has committed.