Thursday, August 31, 2017

Greece Offers Latest Effort to Reform Public Sector, a Key Bailout Demand

Aug. 30, 2017, at 1:08 p.m

US News

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's government presented a three-year plan to overhaul the country's public sector on Wednesday, the latest attempt to fix a problem that helped plunge the country into its worst crisis in decades seven years ago.

Athens, which has signed up for three international bailouts since 2010, has promised its lenders to shrink and modernize its administration to cut costs, make it more efficient and end a legacy of patronage hiring.

The leftist-led government says it aims to evaluate and educate state workers, distribute staff according to the sector's needs and seek candidates with digital skills, create online databases and simplify regulation by 2019.

UPDATE 1-Greece's Eurobank, Piraeus profitable in Q2, bad debt levels ease

AUGUST 30, 2017 / 7:43 PM / 15 HOURS AGO
Reuters Staff
4 MIN READ
* Eurobank posts 8.8 percent rise in Q2 profit

* Non-performing loans ease to 34.6 pct of book

* Piraeus Bank swings to 7 mln euro profit in Q2 (Adds Eurobank, Piraeus CEOs comment, details)

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Greece’s Eurobank reported a sixth straight quarterly profit on Wednesday and Piraeus Bank swung back into the black, pointing to a recovery from the nation’s economic crisis as banks slowly reduce their pile of bad debts.

Greek banks have been struggling with problem loan portfolios after a protracted recession pushed unemployment to record highs, making it hard for borrowers to service debts.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

First on CNN: US troops exchange fire with Turkish-backed rebels in Syria



By Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 1927 GMT (0327 HKT) August 29, 2017

(CNN)US troops in northern Syria came under direct attack last week by Turkish-backed rebels, a military official with the coalition fighting ISIS told CNN Tuesday. The official said that while US troops returned fire there were no casualties on either side.

The coalition believes the attackers are part of the Turkish-backed opposition forces, a loose grouping of Arab and Turkmen fighters that have helped the Turkish military clear ISIS from the Turkish-Syria border area.

Iran Building Weapons Factories in Lebanon and Syria, Israel Says


By ISABEL KERSHNERAUG. 29, 2017

The New York Times

JERUSALEM — Israel is using a visit this week by the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, to highlight concerns about what it says are Iran’s efforts to produce advanced, precision weapons in Lebanon and Syria.

“Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference with Mr. Guterres on Monday, “and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as war fronts against its declared goal to eradicate Israel.”

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Chastised by E.U., a Resentful Greece Embraces China’s Cash and Interests


By JASON HOROWITZ and LIZ ALDERMANAUG. 26, 2017

The New York Times

ATHENS — After years of struggling under austerity imposed by European partners and a chilly shoulder from the United States, Greece has embraced the advances of China, its most ardent and geopolitically ambitious suitor.

While Europe was busy squeezing Greece, the Chinese swooped in with bucket-loads of investments that have begun to pay off, not only economically but also by apparently giving China a political foothold in Greece, and by extension, in Europe.

Last summer, Greece helped stop the European Union from issuing a unified statement against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. This June, Athens prevented the bloc from condemning China’s human rights record. Days later it opposed tougher screening of Chinese investments in Europe.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Who Will Be Europe’s Alexander Hamilton?

AUG 7, 2017 4

Project Syndicate

SYLVESTER EIJFFINGER
Sylvester Eijffinger is Professor of Financial Economics at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

TILBURG – Not too long ago, the European Central Bank’s actions were usually met with cheers. But more recently, the ECB has drawn criticism from not just bankers and economists, but also citizens and politicians.
With returns on fixed-income investments decreasing, investors are being forced into equity investments, which have become riskier and more expensive, owing to increased uncertainty about financial and economic stability. That uncertainty reflects the fact that the ECB’s extremely low interest rates are serving to prevent desperately needed structural reforms in eurozone countries with high deficits and debt.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Greece launches new offshore oil and gas tenders

AUGUST 7, 2017 / 3:38 PM / 15 MINUTES AGO

Reuters

ATHENS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Greece launched two tenders on Monday for offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the west and south of the country, the energy ministry said.

The move follows expressions of interest by a consortium of Total, Exxon Mobil and Hellenic Petroleum for exploration in two sites off the island of Crete, and by Greece's Energean for a block in the Ionian Sea in western Greece.

Greece scapegoats a statistician who only did his job


The Washington Post

By Editorial Board August 4
IN GREECE, the lucrative tourism industry is threatened this summer by millions of oversized jellyfish washing ashore on the nation’s beaches. An even slimier development is the ongoing persecution of the country’s first independent chief statistician, whose tough-minded steps to straighten out Greece’s notoriously fraudulent economic data have been repaid with farcical prosecutions by a judicial system rapidly discrediting itself in the world’s eyes.

Andreas Georgiou, an American-trained economist who spent two decades working at the International Monetary Fund, was hired as Greece’s top statistician in 2010 as the country’s debt crisis was spiraling out of control. His goal was to honestly report economic data that for years had been fudged by politicians and officials seeking to minimize their own fateful fiscal mismanagement.

Friday, July 21, 2017

The IMF Has Approved a $1.8 Billion Conditional Loan For Greece

Reuters
10:31 PM ET
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved in principle a $1.8 billion standby loan arrangement for Greece, making a conditional commitment to help underpin the country's long-running bailout program for the first time in two years.

But the IMF's approval-in-principle means the fund will not make any money available until after it receives "specific and credible assurances" from Greece's European lenders to ensure the country's debt sustainability.
The approval is also conditional on Greece keeping its economic reforms on track. The current bailout, Greece's third since 2010, is now shouldered exclusively by European institutions.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Yes Greece Can


by Marcus Ashworth

Bloomberg

July 19, 2017 8:08 AM EDT
Greece's hopes of returning to the debt markets after a three-year absence have been held up by one of its main creditors, the International Monetary Fund.Under the strict conditions of its bailout, the country's debt burden is still too high to contemplate selling more debt, according to the IMF. But there is a compromise option, which Greece should pursue.The Hellenic Republic had been laying the groundwork to issue as much as 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion) in five-year bonds after repaying 6 billion euros of its existing debt this week. But the funds to pay down that debt came from the European Stability Mechanism, so Greece's overall debt hasn't been reduced, simply extended.The IMF's opposition to issuing new debt doesn't stop Greece from shuffling its debt stack by lengthening maturities.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Greek Bond Sale Is Said to Be Delayed by IMF Debt Cap Rule


By Viktoria Dendrinou  and Nikos Chrysoloras
19 Ιουλίου 2017, 12:43 π.μ. EEST 19 Ιουλίου 2017, 11:48 π.μ. EEST

Bloomberg

Greece’s much anticipated return to bond markets this week has been held off partly due to a ceiling set by the International Monetary Fund on the amount of debt the country can hold, according to three officials familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the talks are confidential.

Turkey has agreed to buy Russia's advanced missile-defense system, leaving NATO wondering what's next

Christopher Woody

Jul. 17, 2017, 1:48 PM

Business Insider


Turkey reached an agreement with Russia to purchase the latter's most sophisticated missile-defense system, the S-400, a senior Turkish military official told Bloomberg last week.

Under the $2.5 billion agreement Ankara would receive two batteries of the antiaircraft missile from Moscow within the coming year and then produce two more batteries in Turkey.

At the beginning of June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to deliver the missile system, and a Russian military-industry official said an agreement on technical details had been reached in mid-June.

Turkey Leaks Secret Locations of U.S. Troops in Syria

Ankara has long been angered by the alliance between Washington and Kurdish factions. But a new report exposing secret American bases is a dangerous way to strike back.

Roy Gutman
ROY GUTMAN
07.19.17 1:00 AM ET

The Daily Beast

ISTANBUL—In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of 10 U.S. military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled capital of Raqqa.
The list published by the Anadolu news agency points to a U.S. presence from one end to the other of the Kurdish self-administration region—a distance of more than 200 miles. The Anadolu news agency even listed the number of U.S. troops in several locations and in two instances stipulated the presence of French special forces.

Countries That Broke Ties With Qatar Indicate Some Flexibility on Demands

By RICK GLADSTONEJULY 18, 2017

The New  York Times

Senior diplomats from the four Arab countries that have broken ties with Qatar indicated Tuesday that they were no longer insisting on 13 precise demands that the Qataris must satisfy, or on a specific deadline for them to comply.

The remarks by the diplomats from Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates seemed to indicate a slight easing in their position and a desire to make some progress in the bitter dispute, which began in early June.

How EU Reckons Greece Can Make a Successful Return to Markets

By REUTERSJULY 18, 2017, 10:51 A.M. E.D.T.
Continue reading the main storyShare This BRUSSELS — Greece's imminent return to markets will be a step towards a successful exit from its euro zone-funded bailout programme, but it will not be an overnight change.

The New York Times

The process, European Union officials say, will require a series of successful bond sales and the build-up of a "sizeable" cash buffer.

Euro zone creditors are keen to see Athens develop a strategy to tap the markets well before the end of its current 86-billion-euro financial aid programme, so that when the bailout expires in August 2018 the country will be more likely to stand on its own feet.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

EU Commission Says Greece Public Finances Back in Order

By REUTERS
JULY 12, 2017, 7:57 A.M. E.D.T.
The New York Times

BRUSSELS — Greece's fiscal position has improved and the European Union should end disciplinary procedures against it over its excessive deficit, the EU commission said on Wednesday, paving the way for the country to return to international bond markets.

EU fiscal rules oblige member states to keep their budget deficits below 3 percent of their economic output or face sanctions that could entail hefty fines, although so far no country has received a financial penalty.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Turkey detains academics for alleged links to cleric Gulen

By Associated Press July 10

The Washington Post

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s official news agency says police have detained 42 people, including academics, for alleged links to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric less than a week before the anniversary of the failed coup.

Anadolu news agency said the operations Monday targeted people working at Turkey’s Bogazici and Medeniyet University. Prominent Bogazici academic and government critic, Koray Caliskan, and 19 professors from Medeniyet’s medical school are among the detained.

American tourist killed in Greece was fatally beaten over a selfie, police say

By Kristine Phillips July 11 at 3:17 PM

The Washington Post

American Bakari Henderson was killed by a group of as many as 15 men because of an argument over a selfie at a bar on a Greek island, police said.

A confrontation began after Henderson, who was vacationing with friends, asked to take a picture with a waitress, and quickly escalated into a fistfight involving other customers and two bar employees, Greek police spokesman Theodore Chronopoulos told The Washington Post. Video surveillance shows that the 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of Arizona was fatally beaten in a span of just 30 seconds, Chronopoulos said.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Greece expects minimum $456 mln offers in gas grid sale - newspaper

 Mon Jul 10, 2017 | 7:28am EDT

Reuters

Greece expects potential investors will offer at least 400 million euros ($456 million) for a majority stake in its gas grid operator DESFA, Energy Minister George Stathakis said in an interview with Naftemporiki newspaper.

Greece, under pressure by EU lenders to conclude the sale as it has earmarked about 180 million euros of the proceeds in this year's budget, relaunched the tender in June after a 400 million euro deal with Azerbaijan state oil company SOCAR fell through over gas tariffs among other issues.

Friends say Texan killed in Greece was easygoing, fun-loving

By Jamie Stengle | AP July 10 at 6:03 PM

The Washington Post

DALLAS — A 22-year-old Texas man who was beaten to death at a bar on a Greek island recently graduated from college and was known to his friends for his fun-loving and friendly demeanor.

Bakari Henderson, of Austin, was beaten to death early Friday at the bar in Lagana on the island of Zakynthos.

Authorities haven’t disclosed a possible motive for the attack, but eight people have been arrested. Greek police said among them were a 34-year-old Greek and a 32-year-old British man of Serbian origin. Serbia’s foreign ministry said six of its citizens were arrested.