Titoli di Stato area Euro GRECIA Operativo titoli di stato - Cap. 1 (15 lettori)

[tommy271]

Greek entrepreneur values "China factor"



19:24, February 22, 2011




European businessmen are becoming more aware of China's growing influence when they seek business opportunities brought by the "China factor."

There is no sense to make any entrepreneurial move in the West nowadays without taking the "China factor" into consideration, Greek entrepreneur Kimonas Doukoumentzidis told Xinhua in a recent interview.

With a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, the 34-year-old man had studied and worked in France, Germany and Switzerland for 15 years. He returned to Greece and started his own business last year after the outbreak of the European debt crisis.

"I felt the civic duty to return and help my country ... I believe entrepreneurship is the way to move forward," Doukoumentzidis said.

Aware of China's rising influence, he developed an Internet application software to promote Greek tourist destinations to Chinese travellers.


He said he aims to fill in an "obvious business gap" in the tourism industry between the two nations.

Chinese tourists made a total of 57.39 million outbound trips in 2010, up 20.4 percent on the previous year, according to data from China's National Tourism Administration (NTA).

Doukoumentzidis has been following closely China's economic and political development for years.

"China's strong economy and the progress it has made in the past five to 10 years have amazed me, because most countries would have to spend 50 to 60 years to realize similar achievements," the young entrepreneur said.

Doukoumentzidis is a vocal supporter of closer economic cooperation between Europe and China, believing that a new wave of Chinese investment in Europe and China's huge markets provide good business opportunities for both sides.

Source: Xinhua

 

[tommy271]

Return to the Drachma?

Economists Warn Greece May Have to Quit Euro



Greece's debts are rising rapidly despite radical austerity measures. Now a group of leading European economists has warned that creditors might have to write off more than 30 percent of their loans. Greece might even have to reintroduce the drachma to overcome its debt crisis, they argue.



The European Economic Advisory Group (EEAG), a group of leading European economists, has warned that Greece may need another bailout by 2013 at the latest.


Greece's current savings program won't suffice to cope with its debt problems, the EEAG said in a new report which was published Tuesday. Greece is unlikely to be in a position to refinance itself via the financial markets once the current rescue package runs out, the economists said. The Greek government has so far stressed that it will "pay back every cent" and will start reducing its debts in 2014 at the latest.

The EEAG recommends drastic steps to prevent the EU from having to provide Greece with long-term aid: Greece should either return to its national currency, the drachma, or launch even tougher austerity measures, including general cuts in wages and salaries.

According to a Süddeutsche Zeitung article published on Tuesday, leading banks are already giving up hope that Greece will be able to pay back all its debts. Thomas Mirow, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, believes a Greek debt restructuring is unavoidable.

"It is doubtful that Greece will be able to bear a debt ratio of more than 150 percent over the long term," Mirow told the Süddeutsche. "The markets have been pricing in a debt restructuring for some time. The ratio should be lowered to 100 percent so that the country can overcome its problems." That would mean creditors would have to forego more than 30 percent of their loans.


New Worries About Portugal, Spain

Portugal's finances are also causing fresh concern. The country will have to refinance some €4.3 billion ($5.8 billion) in bonds in April. Many market participants expect that the interest on the bonds will be so high that Portugal will have to seek help from the European Union's euro rescue fund.

But the Portuguese government insists it will be able to borrow fresh funds on the capital markets. Portugal's borrowing costs have soared on concerns about its public finances, and many economists have said it is likely to follow Greece and Ireland in requesting international help. "Portugal is tackling fiscal rebuilding to achieve its fiscal reform targets. The situation is different from Greece and Ireland," Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said during a visit to Japan, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Spanish central bank announced Monday that Spain's savings banks have outstanding real estate loans of €217 billion -- of which up to €100 billion has to be classified as toxic.


(spiegel.de)

 

[tommy271]

Bini Smaghi: Restructuring Would Be "A Leap Into The Unknown"



European Central Bank executive member, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, said on Tuesday that the return of inflation to emerging markets will help countries in the euro zone to restore lost competitiveness.

“Because of the inflationary pressure in some of their many export markets in the emerging world, euro area countries are more likely to regain price competitiveness now than other crisis-hit countries were in the past” Bini Smaghi said in a speech in Hong Kong.

His argument is a retort to those who claim that Greece, Ireland and Portugal will not avoid default because they can΄t regain competitiveness by devaluing against their main trading partners in the Eurozone.

Bini Smaghi added that there is no post-war example of a government in an industrialised economy restructuring its debt.

“For a euro area sovereign to seek to restructure its debt would be a huge leap into the unknown. This aspect is frequently omitted by financial analysts in their newsletters or by commentators or academics in their short op-eds”, he stated.

Bini Smaghi stressed that the strength of contagion across financial institutions and markets is potentially more significant within the euro area today than was the case in Asia in the 1990s, given the much greater depth and intensity of financial and economic integration in Europe.

"This means that the potential for spillovers and a systemic areawide crisis is much higher and has to be factored into the policy responses," Bini Smaghi said.

He also commented that the financial tensions led to a disruption of domestic financial intermediation, with severe consequences for both private and public financing.

“In Greece, the banks – which were reasonably strong in a ‘stand-alone’ sense – were undone by revelations about the weakness of public finances”, he added.

(capital.gr)

***
La soluzione è sempre quella: buy-back e piano Brady ...

 

[tommy271]

Intanto la Borsa di Atene è zavorrata verso il basso sia per le questioni interne che per quelle esterne. L'indice ASE segna 1611 punti a - 3,39%. Scambi a 80 MLN.

I nostri spread recuperano qualcosa rispetto al picco massimo di oggi, ma rimangono sempre estremamente deboli e vulnerabili. Ora a 873 pb. circa.

 

[tommy271]

Debt at 340 bln euros in '10


Greece’s central government debt totaled 340.277 billion euros at the end of last year, up from 336.807 billion euros on Sept. 30, 2010, the finance ministry announced to the ANA-MPA on Monday.

The ministry noted the country’s reserves totaled 7.187 billion euros on Dec. 31, 2010, down from 11.176 billion euros three months earlier.

(ana.gr)

***
Dati importanti.

 

[tommy271]

I TITOLI DEI GIORNALI:

Economic and taxation issues, and the violence in Libya were the main front-page items in Athens' dailies on Tuesday.



ADESMEFTOS TYPOS: "All of PASOK 'numb' after revelation that Papandreou brought the IMF to Greece".

AVGHI: "Admission of collusion with IMF".

ELEFTHEROS: "Ten adverse changes to military officers' benefits".

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "They're cutting the benefits received by the families of soldiers killed while on duty".

ELEFTHEROTYPIA: "Bank deposits to be seized of those who do not pay VAT revenues to the state".

ESTIA: "Statism returning".

ETHNOS: "Gaddafi bombing Libya - International shock caused by Gaddafi airforce's bombing of Libyan capital".

IMERISSIA: "Banks take up battle positions".

KATHIMERINI: "Gaddafi sank Libya in blood".

LOGOS: "End of sales period, opening of bankruptcies".

NAFTEMPORIKI: "Penalisation of tax evasion".

NIKI: "The secret that National Bank of Greece is 'hiding'."

RIZOSPASTIS: "General strike tomorrow".

TA NEA: "Taxes and other debts of the State to companies and professionals will be counterbalanced with the taxes the latter must pay to the state".

VRADYNI: "The state will pay (its debts to public sector or private companies) with bonds".



(ana.gr)

 

[sethi]

Mi spiace dirlo ......veramente mi spiace dirlo ......ma a questo punto ritengo che potenze economiche o politche stia veramente operando per destabilizzare sia la zona euro che altre ampie parti del mondo.........è un susseguirsi ininterrotto di avvenimenti econmici e politici negativi .......stiamo entrando veramente nella fantascienza.............seguivo un programma e la domanda era ora cosa capiterà .......(naturalemente in senso negativo) .......è un susseguirsi continuo ed ininterrotto non ci lasciano respirare .............

 

[mago gambamerlo]

EFG Hellas 2013 4.375% 85 / 88 ( stranamente va' meglio dei tds 2013 al 4.6% che sono sui 83 / 84 ).

 

[tommy271]

EFG Hellas 2013 4.375% 85 / 88 ( stranamente va' meglio dei tds 2013 al 4.6% che sono sui 83 / 84 ).

Le banche, contrariamente a quanto dice Gaudente, non sono malaccio ... ed inoltre non rientrano (almeno apparentemente) nella questione buy-back.

 

[tommy271]

Papandreou Urges Merkel to Ease Greece’s Bailout Terms

February 22, 2011, 8:54 AM EST

By Tony Czuczka
(Updates with Greek bonds in fifth paragraph, Ifo’s Sinn comment in sixth.)


Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister George Papandreou challenged Chancellor Angela Merkel to ease Greece’s lending terms, saying the European Union needs all available tools to fight the sovereign debt crisis.

Papandreou, who is due to meet with Merkel in Berlin later today, said that EU leaders working to finish a comprehensive plan to stem the crisis by late March must consider changes to the 440 billion-euro ($602 billion) rescue fund to allow Greece to buy back debt and pay lower interest rates.

“Buybacks and so on should be allowed on the table,” he told an audience at Berlin’s Humboldt University late yesterday. “This is what I mean when I say we should have all the tools. We should as Europe give ourselves the powers needed to deal with this debt crisis. That will calm the markets.”

Papandreou’s plea before two EU crisis summits next month clashes with Merkel’s insistence that European governments take steps to increase the region’s competitiveness before Germany allows any boost in rescue efforts. Germany’s central bank said yesterday that it opposes giving the rescue fund or its successor from 2013 powers to buy government bonds in the secondary market. Merkel and Papandreou are due to hold a news conference at 7 p.m. Berlin time.

Bonds in high-deficit euro countries fell today. The difference in yield, or spread, investors demand to hold 10-year Greek, Spanish and Portuguese debt over similar German bonds widened as unrest in Libya spurred demand for the safety of bunds. The euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.3668 at 2:20 p.m. in Berlin.


‘Service Its Debt’

“I see a general opinion now that Greece will not be able to service its debt,” Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany’s Ifo research institute, told reporters in Brussels today. Greece is likely to be forced to restructure its debt because other options for overcoming the crisis aren’t feasible, he said.

High-debt euro countries are stepping up pressure for easier aid terms, underscoring Europe’s split. Ireland, the second country to need a bailout after Greece, is also calling for a lower markup on loan rates. Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos said Feb. 15 the bailout fund should be allowed to buy government bonds and offer different types of loans.

While Germany has indicated it may consider lower rates in return for a commitment across the euro region to tackle debt and boost competitiveness, fellow governments have so far blocked that German attempt to mold the EU in its image.


Portuguese Mission

As Papandreou made the rounds of German government and opposition politicians in Berlin today, European officials were due in Lisbon to assess Portugal’s budget and the strength of its financial industry, Jornal de Negocios newspaper reported, citing an unidentified person in the Finance Ministry.

Greece’s debts are likely to be more than 156 percent of gross domestic product when a 110 billion-euro EU-led aid package runs out in 2013, according to EU forecasts. Greece pays about 5 percent for European aid.

The EU “needs to strengthen” financial support for nations such as Greece and Ireland as growth in most EU economies gathers pace, European Central Bank Executive Board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said in a speech in Hong Kong.

Papandreou last night urged EU leaders to consider lower interest rates on bailout loans as they discuss possible changes in the rescue fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility, and the shape of the permanent system to stabilize the euro after 2013, the European Stability Mechanism.


‘Painful’ Cost

“If a country has been negligent, there could be an extra cost,” he said. “That cost has to be painful, but not so much that it derails the economy of that country. This is the type of mechanism we should look at in the ESM and the EFSF.”

While it’s understandable that Germans “don’t want to create incentives for other countries to spend too much,” they must help put Greece in a “viable” situation, Papandreou said. “That is what we are working on with Angela Merkel.”

Merkel’s challenge is to balance Germans’ dissatisfaction with bailouts for Greece and Ireland with her pledge to defend the euro while fighting elections in seven of 16 states this year. Support for her Christian Democrats plunged two days ago in Hamburg, the first ballot of 2011. EU leaders will meet in Brussels March 24-25 to decide on a comprehensive plan for ending Europe’s debt crisis.

Greece is prepared to go through hard times to reduce the country’s debt load, though it won’t sell state-owned islands to do so, Papandreou said. His Berlin speech was interrupted on several occasions by student protesters who jeered and chanted slogans in Greek.

“We are ready to take this pain and make these changes for the better of our country,” he said.