Friday, March 15, 2013

National Bank Falls as Investor Faces Hurdles: Athens Mover


By Natalie Weeks - Mar 15, 2013 2:36 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
National Bank of Greece SA, the country’s biggest lender, extended this week’s slide after saying an investor’s interest in covering part of NBG Group’s recapitalization needs is facing hurdles.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Italy’s Borrowing Costs Rise at Bond Auction After Downgrade


By Chiara Vasarri - Mar 13, 2013 2:39 PM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
Italian borrowing costs rose in the first bond auction since a credit rating downgrade last week that highlighted the economic risks of the country’s current political stalemate.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Greece Faces 150,000 Job-Cut Hurdle to Aid Payment: Euro Credit

Bloomberg News
By Maria Petrakis and Marcus Bensasson on March 11, 2013
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-03-11/greece-faces-150-000-job-cut-hurdle-to-aid-payment-euro-credit#p1
Greece is locked in talks with international creditors in Athens about shrinking the government workforce by enough to keep bailout payments flowing.

Identifying redundant positions and putting in place a system that will lead to mandatory exits for about 150,000 civil servants by 2015 is a so-called milestone that will determine whether the country gets a 2.8 billion-euro ($3.6 billion) aid instalment due this month. More than a week of talks on that has so far failed to clinch an agreement.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Europe's Rising Social and Political Risks


Posted: 03/11/2013 12:13 pm
Daniel WagnerCEO, Country Risk Solutions
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/europes-rising-social-and_b_2853191.html
While income inequality has been falling globally since the 1980s, it has been rising in most of Europe. The Gini Coefficient, a widely used measure of income inequality, has risen since that time not only in Eastern Europe, but among Europe's wealthiest societies.

UPDATE 1-Suffering Greece's economy shrank again at end of last year


Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:15am EDT
* Q4 GDP shrinks 5.7 pct, less than previous flash estimate
    * Slump in consumption continues, imports fall
    * GDP seen contracting by 4.5 pct this year

    ATHENS, March 11 (Reuters) - Greece's economy shrank at an
annual 5.7 percent in the last quarter of 2012, combining for a
20 percent slump in real terms
since 2008.

Greek privatisation chief quits after graft charges filed


ATHENS, March 9 | Sat Mar 9, 2013 1:00pm EST
(Reuters) - Greece's privatisation chief and a senior finance ministry official resigned on Saturday after they were charged with breach of duty over their former role as board members of a state utility.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Greece set for comeback as tourist destination


Fri Mar 8, 2013 2:46am EST
* European tourism seen up 2-3 pct in 2013

* Greece bookings rebound, Alltours sees 30 pct rise

* Emerging markets to be main driver of global tourism

By Michelle Martin and Victoria Bryan

BERLIN, March 8 (Reuters) - Tourism in Greece is bouncing back this year in an otherwise flat European market, held back by the weak economic climate, travel industry executives said.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Greece confident aid tranche to be paid, denies talks deadlocked


By Lefteris Papadimas
ATHENS | Wed Mar 6, 2013 1:30pm EST
(Reuters) - Greece is confident of getting an aid tranche due this month, its finance minister said on Wednesday, dismissing speculation that talks with foreign lenders on cutting its bloated public sector were deadlocked.

UPDATE 1-Greek unemployment falls for first time since 2008


Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:55am EST
* Jobless rate slightly down to 26.4 percent from revised 26.6 pct in Nov

* First monthly drop since May 2008

* Bailout deal may have given short-term boost to hirings-economist

* Greek unemployment still highest in euro area

ATHENS, March 7 (Reuters) - Greece's jobless rate fell in December for the first time since a crippling recession began five years ago, helped by a bailout deal that propped up companies' willingness to hire in the short-term.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez dies from cancer


By Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Wallis
CARACAS | Tue Mar 5, 2013 6:35pm EST
(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous rule that made the socialist leader a hero for the poor but a hate figure to his opponents.

The flamboyant 58-year-old had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on December 11 and he had not been seen in public since.

Greece charges three ex-ministers over income declarations


ATHENS | Wed Mar 6, 2013 12:42pm EST
(Reuters) - A Greek prosecutor charged three former ministers on Wednesday for failing to declare the source of their wealth, the latest high-profile politicians in legal trouble as public anger rises at a political class widely seen as corrupt.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Greek court jails former top politician for graft


ATHENS | Mon Mar 4, 2013 10:47am EST
(Reuters) - A Greek court sentenced a former defense minister to eight years in prison on Monday for failing to disclose the source of lavish wealth that made him a symbol of the corruption that has plagued the country.

Once a powerful Socialist politician who almost became prime minister in the 1990s, Akis Tsohatzopoulos has been in jail pending trial since April last year as prosecutors probed allegations of fraudulently acquired wealth.

EU Opens Way for Easier Budgets After Austerity Backlash


By James G. Neuger & Svenja O’Donnell - Mar 5, 2013 1:01 AM GMT+0200
European finance ministers opened the way for looser budget policies after a backlash against austerity thrust Italy into political limbo and shattered months of relative stability in European markets.
Italy’s deadlocked election, France’s refusal to make deeper budget cuts and protests against the shrinking of the welfare state across southern Europe escalated the rebellion against the German-led prescription for fighting the debt crisis.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Steinmetz Real Estate Hires RREEF’s Papachristophorou


By Elisa Martinuzzi & Sharon Smyth - Mar 4, 2013 3:53 PM GMT+0200
(Corrects Papachristophorou’s age in fifth paragraph.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-04/steinmetz-real-estate-hires-rreef-s-papachristophorou-correct-.html
Chris Papachristophorou, former global head of Deutsche Bank AG (DBK)’s RREEF Opportunistic Investments, is joining Beny Steinmetz Group Real Estate to run a private-equity venture that aims to invest $2 billion.

The Second Battle of Marathon


Huffington Post
Evaggelos VallianatosAdjunct professor of environmental analysis, Pitzer College
Posted: 03/01/2013 4:31 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evaggelos-vallianatos/the-second-battle-of-mara_b_2792476.html
The Second World War was the most destructive and bloody conflict of all times. Large and small countries fought bitterly to the end, killing millions of humans and causing immense devastation of both nature and societies. To some degree, WWII was also a holocaust of civilization.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Greece faces bailout review, plays down public sector job losses


Sat Mar 2, 2013 2:14pm EST
* EU/IMF/ECB troika officials visit Athens Sunday

* Will check progress on bailout plan

* Minister plays down fears of public sector job losses

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS, March 2 (Reuters) - Officials from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund return to Athens on Sunday to assess Greece's performance under a bailout plan as the government plays down the prospect of public sector job cuts.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Russell Indexes to Reclassify Greece as Emerging Market


By Nina Mehta - Mar 2, 2013 2:43 AM GMT+0200
Bloomberg
Russell Investments, which advises funds with $2.4 trillion in assets, will reclassify Greece from a developed to an emerging market, following a four-year recession in which the country’s economy shrank 20 percent.
Greece, which was raised to developed market status by the New York-based adviser in 2001, has failed one or both of Russell Indexes’ economic and operational risk assessments each year since 2011, according to a note on the company’s website. Relegation to emerging market status will force managers to buy and sell shares to align holdings with their funds’ criteria.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Italy behind rise in eurozone jobless to record


By By Pan Pylas on March 01, 2013
Bloomberg Businessweek
LONDON (AP) — Italy's voters gave their verdict on the austerity medicine they've been forced to take when they went to the polls earlier this week. By Friday, one of the reasons behind the protest was highlighted when the country's unemployment hit its highest level in at least two decades.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

UPDATE 1-Greek retailers slump for fourth year in 2012


Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:41am EST
    By Harry Papachristou and Renee Maltezou
    ATHENS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Greek retail sales plunged for a
fourth consecutive year in 2012, dropping by more than a tenth
and highlighting the pain  public sector austerity is inflicting
on household consumption.   

Ex-Mayor in Greece Gets Life in Prison for Embezzlement

By NIKI KITSANTONIS
Published: February 27, 2013
The New York Times
ATHENS — The former mayor of Greece’s second city, Salonika, and two of his top aides were sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of embezzling almost 18 million euros, or $23.5 million, in public money — a rare conviction in a case involving the political corruption that has contributed to the country’s dysfunction and economic decline.