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

[tommy271]

Greece's governing Socialists want 5 former ministers charged over land swaps

By: The Associated Press
Posted: 18/10/2010 2:46 PM



ATHENS, Greece - State NET TV says Greece's ruling Socialists have sought the indictment of five former conservative ministers over a real estate scandal involving a wealthy monastery.

Socialist members of a parliamentary committee probing the scandal have recommended in a report that the five stand trial for alleged offences that include breach of faith and acting against the public interest.
Parliament will vote on the recommendations next month.

Monday's report followed a lengthy investigation into land swaps between the state and the Greek Orthodox monastery during the 2004-2009 conservative administration.

Investigators have found that the deals were weighted in favour of the 1,000-year-old Vatopedi monastery, and cost taxpayers at least €100 million.

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Operazione chiarezza e trasparenza.

 

[tommy271]

Greece’s Papandreou Says 2011 Will Be Last Year of Recession

October 18, 2010, 8:29 PM EDT

By Maria Petrakis


Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said next year will be the last year of recession for Greece, with growth returning to the country in 2012.
“2011 and 2012 are important years,” Papandreou said, according to an email of his comments at a Cabinet meeting in Athens. “We believe that 2011 will be the last year of recession so that 2012 we will return to growth and in 2013 head towards developments that will take us definitively out of the crisis and away from economic dependency.”


***
Le buone intenzioni ...

 

[tommy271]

Greece 2009 Deficit Could Be Revised Up To 16%: Fin Min Offl

By Angelika Papamiltiadou


ATHENS (MNI) - Greece's 2009 public deficit could be revised to 16% of GDP from 13.6%, the general secretary of the Finance Ministry hinted Monday.
These are the works of the previous government, which up to last September said the deficit was 6%," Dimitris Georgakopoulos told a Greek radio station. "And the deficit is heading towards 16%.

The official was referring to upward revisions for the deficit and debt for 2006-2009 expected to be announced by Eurostat on Friday. The initial revisions given by Eurostat in April were 0.3-0.8% for the deficit in 2009 and up to 7% for the public debt.

Since then, however, Eurostat officials have been inspecting the data, which showed that the states obligations towards hospitals, indebted public utilities and social security funds were much higher than initially estimated.
In the past few days, Greek media have reported that the 2009 debt will be revised between 14.5% and 15.5%, citing Finance Ministry sources, while the debt will be revised by 10%.

Government sources told Market News that the figures have not been finalized yet, as the process of collecting data will continue up to the last minute.
Both Eurostat and the Greek government want to close the books on the past and remove the asterisks that have been accompanying the data up to now.

But the revisions are expected to affect the 2010 and 2011 targets and a new package of austerity measures should be announced in November after the municipal elections.
According to this year's data through September, revenues and expenditure results have not reached the targets set in the loan accord signed by Greece and the EU and the IMF in May.

Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou has indicated that there will be a new round of spending cuts in the wider public sector, without touching salaries and pensions. But analysts wonder whether the shortfalls can be covered without raising taxes.

The government has said it will have the deficit down to 7.8% by the end of this year. But the revenue shortfall, combined with Eurostat's revisions, are expected to change plans.
Both the European Commission and the ECB have repeatedly warned Greece that the drastic deficit cut achieved so far cannot be sustained without a comprehensive growth plan to boost competitiveness and enhance investment opportunities. But the government has yet to announce the plan.

Moreover, the latest figures indicate that recession is deepening, unemployment is rising above 14% and liquidity in the market is extremely limited. Inflation remains above 5.7%, while private consumption is sluggish. Social partners have warned the government not to increase the tax burden on households any further.

The next inspection of the Greek economy will take place November 15, during which plans for the 2011 budget will be determined as well as any additional measures for 2010.

 

[tommy271]

EUROGROUP CHIEF WARNED GREECE OF ECONOMIC DANGERS 2 YEARS AGO



Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview with a Greek newspaper appearing on Sunday that: “since 2008 we had been pressing and ringing the warning bell to the Greek authorities to take measures to reverse the situation, which appeared to be taking on dangerous proportions”, adding that efficient measures were taken by the current government and: “I can say that I am very satisfied”.

In an interview with the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper, Juncker stated that even if the government were to change in Greece, the Memorandum will remain.
He said he understands the difficult daily life of the Greek people: “but there is no other path”.

Juncker further said he saw no need for taking new measures, nor for discussion about the possibility of extending the repayment period of the EU-IMF loan since: “Greece is making substantial progress as regards consolidating the public finances” and “the noteworthy reduction in the deficit”.
Regarding corruption, the Eurogroup chief said that Greece indeed has a serious problem:”but it is not the only one (country) in the European Union to face such problems”.

He said that the current prime minister of Greece: “had the courage to repeatedly acknowledge that corruption is a major problem for the country…he should not be criticised for what he said…Other prime ministers in the European neighborhood have also admitted to having such issues in their own countries”.

(source: ana-mpa)

 

[tommy271]

ECB rift spices up debate on bond buys



http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php...hl=it&q=greece&as_qdr=h&as_drrb=q&cf=all&tt=0 http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php...hl=it&q=greece&as_qdr=h&as_drrb=q&cf=all&tt=0 http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php...hl=it&q=greece&as_qdr=h&as_drrb=q&cf=all&tt=0

Christiaan Hetzner,Marc Jones,Sakari Suoninen FRANKFURT - 19.10.2010



[FONT=&quot]A rift between senior European Central Bank policymakers over how to nurse the euro zone economy back to health risks unnerving investors and could play a role in determining who becomes the bank's next boss, analysts say.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet on Monday slapped down policy hawk Axel Weber for saying last week that buying bonds issued by euro zone periphery nations like Greece had not helped calm debt market tensions and should be "phased out permanently". [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Weber's intervention raised unwelcome questions over the future direction of ECB policy, with some saying the man heavily tipped to replace Trichet when the Frenchman steps down in October now looked increasingly isolated within the ECB, while others said he had enhanced his credentials as a guardian of price stability.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"Weber's motivation is entirely unclear to me. Were the ECB to tell the markets today that it would stop buying euro zone sovereign bonds, tomorrow that would be a near catastrophe," said Michael Rottmann, Head of Interest and Currency Strategy at UniCredit.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"Spread volatility would increase enormously, if the strongest and in times of stress only purchaser of periphery sovereign debt were to leave the market."[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Confidence that the worst of the euro zone crisis may be over has encouraged investors to wade back into the market, bidding up prices in recent weeks for Greek, Irish, and Portuguese sovereign bonds and effectively doing the ECB's job for it.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"On the surface, Weber doesn't seem to be doing himself or the Governing Council any favours, since it was ultimately the Securities Market Programme (SMP) that halted a vicious downward spiral in the euro earlier in the year," wrote Stephen Gallo, head of Market Analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]But central banks need their hardliners "(to) provide markets and households with clues that (they) ... haven't completely `dropped the ball' on being anchors of price stability.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"We don't chastise the BoE and Fed for Sentance and Hoenig, so why should we chastise the ECB for Weber?"[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]CLOSING THE STABLE DOOR?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Some argue the debate has in any case lost its relevance, given that the ECB spent precisely nothing to prop up demand last week -- for the first time since the 63.5 billion euro bond buying programme began. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"Fund managers are reducing their short positions on the periphery. It started with Greece in mid-September, then Ireland began to perform once the bad news on its banking system became public. We have seen some pretty heavy buying of Portugal's debt last week," said ING interest rate strategist Padhraic Garvey.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]But market confidence will be tested again on Tuesday when Portugal's leading opposition party, the centre-right Social Democrats (PSD), meets to decide whether to back the government's austerity plans for 2011. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]At worst, any budget setback paired with open dissent in the ECB could embolden investors to launch a speculative attack on EU sovereign bond markets that could ruin the still fragile confidence in Greek, Irish and Portuguese creditworthiness.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"You cannot rule that out. Whenever a central bank begins to buy back sovereign debt, it always exposes itself to such a flank," said Barclays Capital economist Thorsten Polleit.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Whether Bundesbank head Weber's vocal dissent harms his chance of inheriting the monetary throne of the ECB in November -- as more and more analysts believe -- is of secondary importance, Polleit argues.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"More than anything, Weber is contributing constructively to an issue that has not received enough attention: the presently incalculable risks associated with the current global policy of monetizing debt. He is sensitizing the public to a much-needed debate that has fallen by the wayside." he said.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]PRAISE FOR DRAGHI?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Italian media jumped on praise for Italy from Trichet at the weekend as a possible endorsement of the bank's head Mario Draghi, viewed as Weber's main rival.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]But one analyst said it would be unwise to read too much into Trichet's observation that the Bank of Italy had been "vigilant in exerting surveillance" during the financial crisis.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"The timing of Trichet's comments is not coincidental. He wanted to make very clear that he is the one giving guidance to investors," said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"To say though that he implicitly favours Draghi as successor by making the comments in an interview with an Italian newspaper would be going too far."[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Schneider Foreign Exchange's Gallo said any focus on the ECB succession debate would be to miss a crucial point, namely that the Bundesbank's inflation-fighting credentials offer perhaps the greatest guarantee for the single currency.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"These principles -- largely shunned in a world of easy monetary policy and deflationary pressures -- could ultimately be the linchpin that provides further confidence in the euro over the longer term," he wrote in a note to clients.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Source Reuters - Balkans.com[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]***[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tutto quello che vola sopra la testa degli ellenici ...
[/FONT]

 

[tommy271]

Herman Van Rompuy in FYRMacedonia on Tuesday

19. October 2010. | 08:18



According to announcements, talks will focus on the coming European Commission Progress Report, along with the bilateral name dispute with Greece as the main obstacle of Macedonia's Euro-integration.


European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will pay Tuesday a visit to FYRMacedonia and meet with country's top officials.

According to announcements, talks will focus on the coming European Commission Progress Report, along with the bilateral name dispute with Greece as the main obstacle of Macedonia's Euro-integration.

Van Rompuy's visit is part of his Balkan tour, which also includes Montenegro, Bosnia&Herzegovina and Albania.


(emg.rs)

 

[tommy271]

Greece’s 2009 Budget Deficit May Exceed 15.5%



Greece’s budget gap for 2009 may exceed 15.5% of GDP following the revision by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, which is due on October 22nd.

Still, officials of the General Accounting Office told Capital.gr that the exact figure may not be made public on Friday 22/10 as originally planned, as they are on going negotiations concerning the revisions in the accounts of Greece’s public pension funds and the losses of state-owned companies that will be registered in the central government budget.

They estimate that the deficit for 2009 will eventually range between 15.5% and 16% of GDP (instead of the originally planned 13.6%) while the public debt will surge to 124% to 126% of GDP.

The Finance Ministry nevertheless insists that the impact of these changes will be limited to 0.4% - 0.6% of GDP in the 2010 budget, meaning that the deficit in 2010 will hit 8.1% of GDP instead of 7.6%. This may mean that the government will have to take measures yielding EUR1.3 billion.

(Capital.gr)

 

[tommy271]

Revised figures worrying Athens

Government will need further cutbacks if 2009 deficit and debt prove bigger than previously calculated


The deficit for 2009 will come to 15.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, as the figures Eurostat will announce this Friday are set to show, forcing the government to start considering ways of covering a revision for this year’s deficit as well.

The European statistics authority will publish the revised figures for the levels of debt and deficit of all eurozone member states for the 2006-09 period, and will reportedly reveal that the Greek state debt for last year actually came to 127 percent of GDP.

The original estimates had suggested that last year’s budget deficit stood at 13.8 percent of GDP, the figure on which the first draft of the 2011 budget is based. The debt was also seen coming to 115.4 percent of GDP.
The general secretary at the Finance Ministry, Dimitris Georgakopoulos, suggested yesterday that the 2009 deficit may eventually close at 16 percent of GDP. In absolute numbers, the Eurostat revision adds 3.7 billion euros to the deficit and 28.8 billion euros to the debt.

This development is due to two factors: the incorporation of the financial figures of state companies to those of the central government and acknowledgment of the swap agreements Greece has signed in recent years.

Last week, the Finance Ministry announced that the deficit of the 11 state companies with the worst losses came to 1.7 billion euros last year, while their accumulated debt amounted to 13 billion. This year’s figures are similar, taking the 2010 deficit 0.5 to 0.8 percent higher than the target set for a decline to 7.8 percent of GDP.

It is quite possible as well that the government will announce fresh measures in an effort to contain the deficits of state companies as a message about putting the greater public sector in order. The first measure on the list will be the curtailment of spending by the Public Investment Program.

Sources at the Finance Ministry have suggested there is a margin for cuts of 800 million euros, or 0.33 percent of GDP. Any further cuts in the program could be decided during the next visit to Athens by representatives of Greece’s international creditors on November 15. The course of state revenues will also play a part.

The debt increase has now created more worries, because if it soars to 127.6 percent of GDP for last year, it will come to around 160 percent of GDP in 2013. That would make an extension to the repayment period for the 110-billion-euro loan package a must.


(Kathimerini.gr)

 

[tommy271]

Money laundering totals 5 billion euros per year



Authorities are doing little to stamp out money laundering in Greece, which amounts to some 5 billion euros per year, a conference hosted by the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce heard yesterday in Athens.
The former head of the committee against money laundering, Giorgos Zorbas (pictured), accused the country’s authorities of apathy on the issue, adding that there was great lack of transparency in transactions at local authorities, social security funds and hospitals, with public money wasted through various procurements.
Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Kouselas put money laundering in Greece at 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, or 5 billion euros, according to figures by the intergovernmental body Financial Action Task Force.
‘The more laws that exist and the stricter clauses we introduce, the higher the cost of graft becomes,’ stated Stefanos Komninos, general secretary for commerce.

(Kathimerini.gr)

 

[tommy271]

New objective values to be put off


NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU


The Finance Ministry is about to postpone the revision of the real estate assessments used for tax purposes, known as “objective” property values, by six months.
The delay until the end of June 2011 instead of the start of the year will be used for the optimum preparation of the relevant committees, while the new values are set to bring about a new method of calculation in order to avoid the distortions often seen now.

At the same time, this delay will allow the property market to take a breath after having been battered by the financial crisis, heavy taxation and the increasingly difficult access to bank funding for mortgage loans.
The Finance Ministry’s general secretary, Dimitris Georgakopoulos, admitted that the market is under pressure and an increase in objective values closer to the actual market prices would constitute an additional problem.

He stressed that the government is now having second thoughts abut the timing of the revision in order to allow the market more time to adjust to the current situation and for the system to be completed. He did add, however, that some 6,000 areas will be added to the system of objective values.

The additional revenues expected from the new objective values may come with a six-month delay but the government aims to offset this loss through the immediate inclusion into the system of those new areas, mostly on islands where properties are currently exempt from taxes such as the single property tax or the large property tax.

These areas are primarily on the Aegean Islands as well as in popular tourism regions, such as Crete, Halkidiki and parts of the Peloponnese. The government’s long-term goal is to include all of the country in the system.
What is more important, however, according to real estate professionals, is to ensure in the future that there is automatic adjustment of objective values to market prices.

(Kathimerini.gr)