Titoli di Stato area Euro GRECIA Operativo titoli di stato - Cap. 1

[tommy271]

UPDATE: Greece Could Tap Markets Again In 2011 - Minister


(Adds details, background)

By Nathalie Boschat and Adam Mitchell Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES PARIS (Dow Jones)--

Greece may tap financial markets again some time next year, even though the country could stay away until 2012, because the government is confident its cost-cutting drive will help lower market funding costs, finance minister George Papaconstantinou told reporters here Thursday.
"We can stay out of the market until 2012. We are hoping to come back to the market by some time in 2011," the Greek finance minister said, after meeting with his French counterpart, Christine Lagarde.

Papaconstantinou is touring Europe's main financial centers in a roadshow aimed at convincing international investors that the Greek government is sticking to a tough austerity program, drawn up with its creditors in May, in order to avoid default.
"We have a program which we are implementing to the letter. We believe the program will allow access to markets and lower borrowing costs," the Greek finance minister said. "With faithful implementation of reforms, we expect that borrowing costs from markets will fall."

Papaconstantinou was answering a question on the possible extension of the International Monetary Fund's help beyond 2012, in the event that interest rates on Greek sovereign debt remain high at that time, even as the government has implemented all the structural reforms it has pledged.
During the country's debt crisis earlier this year, the cost of borrowing for the Greek government surged, straining its finances further. Greece was eventually bailed out by other euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund, which placed conditions on a EUR110 billion emergency support scheme, running until 2012.

Despite the successful issuance this week of shorter term T-bills, long-term rates on the Greece's sovereign debt have remained stubbornly high. Yields on 10-year Greek bonds are around 11%, effectively locking Greece out of the bond market.
The Greek finance minister stuck to a previous target of a 4% contraction in gross domestic product this year, although he said he hopes GDP could eventually turn out better than expected, he said.

Papaconstantinou also confirmed the government's 8.1% deficit target for 2010, amid investor fears that the government's harsh austerity measures will eat into household and corporate revenues and dent tax receipts.
"We fully expect to improve tax revenue as we move forward, but expenditure cuts are above target and will contribute meaningfully to reining in our deficit," he said.

 

[tommy271]

Greek finance minister visits Paris, Frankfurt


(AFP) –

FRANKFURT — Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou made whistle-stop tours in Paris and Frankfurt Thursday to reassure wary investors that Athens will not default on its sovereign debt.
Such a scenario has made it hard for Greece to raise funds on private equity markets and thrown a shadow over finances along the rim of the 16-nation eurozone.


"Restructuring is not going to happen. There are much broader implications for the eurozone should Greece have to restructure its debt," Papaconstantinou told the Financial Times in an interview published following his first stop, in London.
The Greek minister is trying to convince investors to buy long-term Greek debt, as the country struggles to rebuild its battered economy and finances.


His aides told AFP in Paris: "The climate is much much much better than some months ago."
But despite approving painful austerity measures, the country is not out of the woods and political leaders are being careful not to let market rumours gain strength, lest the eurozone face another existential crisis.
"People fail to see the costs to both Greece and the eurozone of a restructuring: the cost to its citizens, the cost to its access to markets," Papaconstantinou said.


"If Greece restructures, why on earth would people invest in other peripheral economies? It would be a fundamental break to the unity of the eurozone."
Although Italy and Spain have been able to raise funds at reasonable prices in recent bond auctions, Ireland and Portugal have seen the cost of borrowing rise sharply with respect to benchmark German bonds.


Papaconstantinou is accompanied by officials from the European Union and International Monetary Fund as he tries to restore confidence after Athens narrow rescue from default in May when the EU and IMF put together a 110-billion-euro (140-billion-dollar) three-year rescue package.
A draconian austerity drive of wage and pension cuts applauded by the EU and IMF appears to have borne fruit despite protests and Greece now favours a full return to the bond markets for funding with longer-term debt next year.


And Deutsche Bank economist Gilles Moec told AFP that politically unpopular decisions appear to be gaining acceptance among the volatile Greek population.
"The kind of blood, sweat and tears approach seems to be working," Moec said.
An aide to Papaconstantinou told AFP: "We have already passed a lot of structural reforms which can give some boost to growth.
"If we move that way, in the determination to reduce the deficit and promoting reforms to enhance growth, there will be a sustainable way for the growth."


Greece must reduce a public deficit that surpassed 14 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year to 8.1 percent in 2010.
Initial measures appear to be bearing fruit and the IMF now forecasts a deficit of 7.9 percent this year, a level nonetheless still far above the European Union ceiling of 3.0 percent.
The Greek economy has taken a body blow from the government's austerity measures however, and the economy is forecast to remain in recession until 2012.

 

[tommy271]

Borsa Atene: Ase chiude a -1,6%, Hellenic Telecoms -4,3%


MILANO (MF-DJ)--L'indice Ase della Borsa di Atene chiude la seduta in ribasso dell'1,6% a quota 1.535,83 punti con un volume di scambi pari a 77,1 mln euro.
Hellenic Telecoms scende del 4,3%, Coca Cola Hellenic del 4%, Opap del 2,9%, Titan del 2%, Piraeus dell'1,6%, Alpha dell'1,3%, National dello 0,8% e Ppc dello 0,5%.
In territorio positivo solo Eurobank che guadagna lo 0,4%

 

[tommy271]

Update: Greece FinMin:Lower Spreads Needed Before Mkt Reentry

FRANKFURT (MNI) - Lower sovereign spreads will be required before Greece can return to the debt market, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told journalists Thursday.
The dependence of Greek banks on European Central Bank funding will continue until market confidence returns, the minister conceded at a press conference in the final leg of his whirlwind tour through London, Paris and Frankfurt.
Repeating what he has said many times before, the minister insisted, that "[Debt] restructuring is completely off the table." He added that, "it would be catastrophic for Greek citizens, for the Greek economy, for the Greek banking sector, and would create contagion effects for the rest of the Eurozone."

"I think the people who think that restructuring is good seriously underestimate and misunderstand the way the Eurozone works," Papaconstantinou said. "The Eurozone does not let down countries who do what they have to do."
The Greek population knows that there is "no alternative" to the aggressive fiscal consolidation currently taking place in the Hellenic Republic, he said.
On returning to capital markets, Papaconstantinou said sovereign spreads must be "certainly much lower than they are today" for Greece to return to the market earlier than 2012. But he refused to mention a specific magnitude by which they must decline.

Asked about domestic support for the drastic reform efforts implemented by the government, Papaconstantinou said, "the Greek people have shown remarkable resilience in what has been a very tough year."
"It has not been easy for the Greek people, we are not trying to sell things to the Greek people, but we are being straight with them," he said. The government has told the people that decisions being taken are necessary to keep the country from going into bankruptcy, and "that kind of straight talk seems to be convincing," he added.

The minister rejected claims that there was "widespread" opposition to the country's reform efforts and emphasized that it was important to distinguish between images seen in the media and the "general mood" in Greece.
The objective of his roadshow this week was to show the international community where things stand with the country's reform program. "The overall picture that comes out is one of a very strong start, with the public deficit being reduced by E7 billion already in August compared with the same period last year and being ahead of the targets" in regards to deficit reduction, he asserted.

Deficit reduction is primarily due to underspending, Papaconstantinou said, noting that there was some lag in revenues. But that is "not worrisome," he added. "I want to stress that what we are succeeding in doing is an unprecedented fiscal consolidation."
Furthermore, he said, "I want to stress that we are ahead of the milestones in a number of important areas," such as pensions. But he acknowledged that "there is still a long way to go -- there is no question about it, but we are confident that we are meeting our targets both in the short and medium term."
Pressed on Greece's banking sector and its dependence on ECB funds, Papaconstantinou said, "I think it is important to remember that the problem with banks in Greece is a problem of the Hellenic Republic. It is a problem of sovereign debt. The banking sector is fundamentally sound."

He said the dependence of Greek banks on ECB funding "will stay there, and the interbank markets will remain closed until confidence returns. And for confidence to return the deficit must go down."
The minister also noted that 30% of the 26-week treasury bills sold recently "were picked up by foreigners."

 

[tommy271]

EU Resistance Mounts to German Bid for Tougher Sanctions on Euro Offenders

By James G. Neuger - Sep 16, 2010 7:21 PM GMT+0200 Thu Sep 16 17:21:33 GMT 2010


Europe-wide resistance mounted to Germany’s pleas for tough financial penalties against high- deficit countries to prevent a repeat of the debt crisis that rattled the euro.
Southern and eastern European governments objected to cutting European Union aid payments from deficit-riddled countries, while German calls to strip fiscal offenders of voting rights on EU decisions also faced opposition.

“More work is needed” on sanctions, EU President Herman Van Rompuy told reporters after a summit of the 27-nation bloc in Brussels today. “We continue to work on financial and nonfinancial sanctions, taking into account some legal elements, constitutional elements, practical, political.”
Discord over retooling the management of the $12 trillion economy comes as bond-yield premiums for countries such as Ireland and Portugal surpass levels reached in May when EU leaders unveiled a 750 billion-euro ($980 billion) backstop to blunt the Greece-led debt crisis.

Portugal’s 10-year yield spread over German bonds jumped to a high of 372 basis points on Sept. 8 and was at 339 basis points today. The spread, a measure of investor skepticism, was at 344 basis points for Ireland, 170 basis points for Spain and 892 basis points for Greece.
Discussions about the euro’s fate were overshadowed by controversy over France’s expulsion of Roma, which French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended at the summit. Leaders also backed British proposals for trade concessions for flood- battered Pakistan. Bowing to Italy’s objections, they delayed the start of a trade pact with South Korea by six months to July 2011.



‘No Consensus’



Europe has “no consensus” on fixing the euro zone, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told the Luxemburger Wort newspaper before the summit. “The nonstop repetition of generalities doesn’t bring us any further on this issue and gives rise to the impression on financial markets that we’re not following through in revising the stability pact.”

The clash over euro rules is a rerun of the 1990s, when Germany’s call for automatic fines on countries that overstep the deficit limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product was blocked by a French-led coalition.
Germany teamed with France in 2005 to water down the rules, and no country has ever been penalized for breaking them. The European Commission will issue proposals on Sept. 29 that would make it harder for violators to escape punishment by forcing them to cobble together a majority to defeat a sanctions proposal.



Germany Rejects Fund



Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out extending the emergency funds set up in May to shield the euro and revived Germany’s demand for a permanent crisis-resolution mechanism to replace the package that was hastily arranged as the euro plummeted.
“It was a clear message to my colleagues: first, Germany won’t support an extension of the existing rescue umbrellas,” Merkel told reporters. “Secondly, we have to work hard to come up quickly with sanctions and lessons from the crisis.”

An initial accord on new euro-region legislation is still on track for late October, Van Rompuy said. He raised the “real possibility” of follow-up negotiations on the German call for a permanent default mechanism, which would require a revision of EU treaties.

The 16-nation currency has rallied after troughing at a four-year low of $1.1876 on June 7. It traded at $1.3077 at 6:45 p.m. Brussels time. It is 14 percent overvalued according to a Bloomberg index of the relative buying power of world currencies.



EU Growth



Fiscal concerns receded as European economic growth spurted to 1 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace in four years. A report today that exports slid for the first time in three months in July indicated that the recovery is losing momentum.

Portugal is running the greatest risk of missing its deficit-reduction targets, with “more worrisome” year-to-date budget data than Ireland, Spain or Greece, David Mackie, chief European economist JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in an e-mailed report today.

Spain has ruled out penalizing high-deficit countries by cutting them off from European infrastructure subsidies, a position echoed by France yesterday. French officials also told reporters in Paris that there will be no confiscation of agricultural aid.
An “intense debate” is under way over the penalties, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said today. While endorsing “effective, automatic and direct” sanctions, he didn’t say they should hit each country’s finances.


Rewrite of Rules



All 27 EU countries are negotiating the rewrite of the rules, since most -- except for the U.K., Denmark and Sweden -- plan to adopt the now 16-country euro. The 17th, Estonia, joins in January.
Poland, the largest future euro user, also wants the EU to allow it to subtract the cost of overhauling its pension system from the national debt. Poland’s debt will rise to 59.3 percent of GDP in 2011, nearing the EU’s 60 percent limit, according to the commission.

Poland is spearheading a bid of nine mostly eastern European countries to rejigger the debt formula, claiming that current rules are a disincentive for introducing more privately funded pensions.
“Many countries share this view,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, stopping short of threatening to veto the euro legislation to get his way. “We must wait at least until the end of this year to see how it ends.”



(Bloomberg)

 

[tommy271]

Abu Dhabi Firm Gains Control of Greek Shipyard

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 16 Sep 2010 13:40



ATHENS - Greece has finalized a deal to transfer a majority stake in the country's main shipyard from German to Arab control, the Greek defense ministry said Sept. 16.

Work proceeds on a submarine being built at Hellenic Shipyards. An Abu Dhabi-based firm will take control of the shipyard, Greek officials said Sept. 16. (Courtesy of Hellenic Shipyards)


"The Greek government, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Abu Dhabi Mar today jointly announce that they have reached an agreement by finalizing the contract text," the ministry said in a statement.
"A new page opens for the Greek Navy, Skaramanga Shipyards and the entire Greek shipbuilding and ship repair sector," it said.
ThyssenKrupp will yield 75 percent of its stake in Skaramanga, also known as Hellenic Shipyards, to Abu Dhabi Mar. The deal had been delayed by wrangling over the delivery of a German-built submarine to the Greek navy.
Athens in 2006 had refused to accept delivery of the Papanikolis submarine ordered in 2000 and built by ThyssenKrupp after Greek navy inspectors declared it defective during test runs off the port of Kiel.
Greek Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos in March said that improvements had since been carried out, enabling the government to authorize its approval.
"Papanikolis is a particularly important property item of the Greek Navy," he said. "It will be used in the most advantageous way for the Greek navy and the state budget."
The government had earlier indicated plans to sell the submarine.
Venizelos added on Sept. 15 that the Navy would also replace a planned overhaul of two older 209-class submarines with an order for two new 214-class submarines. The project will cost 175 million euros ($227 million), he said.
The Greek government, struggling with a debt crisis and facing a huge effort to restructure the economy, has admitted it can ill-afford arms purchases.
But Venizelos stressed that the deadlock over the stalled submarine order "had placed in danger the country's largest shipbuilding industry, thousands of jobs, the entire Greek Navy submarine program and over 2 billion euros already paid by the Greek state without tangible result."
The shipyard agreement will be presented to the Greek parliament for approval and should be in force by Sept. 30, Venizelos said.



(Defense News)

***
Con quest'ultima notizia spegnamo la telescrivente ...

 

[g.ln]

Buonanotte

Abu Dhabi Firm Gains Control of Greek Shipyard

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 16 Sep 2010 13:40




***
Con quest'ultima notizia spegnamo la telescrivente ...

Buonanotte Tommy, ringraziandoti per il tuo lavoro di puntuale informazione, che aiuta tutti ad operare e seguire bene questi difficili titoli rischiosi .
Ciao, ciao, Giuseppe

 

[Noloss]

Un trafiletto quasi allegorico da segnalare, ma giusto per dare un misero contributo alle enormi fatiche di Tommy:

"a certificare lo stato di recessione totale della Grecia ci ha pensato ieri Ikea, la catena svedese di arredamento a basso prezzo, che ha annunciato come nella penisola ellenica il suo complemento più noto e venduto, la libreria Billy verrà venduta con uno sconto del 22 per cento rispetto allo scorso anno.

Vi verrà da ridere ma la libreria Billy è un vero e proprio benchmark del potere d'acquisto, visto che il centro studio di Ikea, situato in Olanda, monitora continuamente vendite e prezzi in tutte le tredici nazioni europee servite dal gigante dell'arredamento ma lo fa anche Bloomberg News: ebbene, in tutte quelle nazioni il prezzo della libreria Billy è sceso nell'ultimo anno. Certo, non è l'indice Vix ma forse anche l'indice Billy deve dirci qualcosa."

 

[tommy271]

Vi ringrazio per gli apprezzamenti.

Dopo aver spremuto a fondo la Grecia, le attenzioni sono sempre più rivolte verso Irlanda e Portogallo. Tengono invece Spagna e Italia che gli recuperano spread unicamente per la perdita del Bund.

Grecia 929 pb. (929)
Irlanda 361 pb. (356)
Portogallo 354 pb. (343)
Spagna 174 pb. (177)
Italia 141 pb. (144)

 

[tommy271]

Qui potete vedere l'intervista a Papaconstantinou sui "Diaspora Bond" ed altro ...

Papaconstantinou Says Greece Considering Diaspora Bond