News archive of December 2016

President Francois Hollande took government and citizens by surprise on Thursday when he announced that he would not be seeking a second term in office and that he would be stepping down next year.

In the 20th century — as recent as 16 years ago — the young and wealthy had the misfortune of social media not having been invented yet so they could show everyone exactly how loaded they were.

The Purchasing Managers' Index for the Greek manufacturing sector dropped to its lowest in 12 months in November, reflecting the major contraction in both output and new orders for the domestic and international markets.

The Greek PMI index, as measured by IHS Markit, stood at 48.3 points last month, against 48.6 in October.

Over 70,000 Greek pensioners will suffer significant cuts to their pensions - retroactively too - in the coming days owing to the imposition of a ceiling on their monthly handouts.

Effective as of June 1, 2016, the new maximum level is set at 2,000 euros gross (or 1,767 euros net) for each individual pension and 3,000 euros gross for each retiree's total income from pensions.

Artist Alexandros Georgiou is not looking for an audience but fellow travelers with whom to share his journeys in faraway places. In the last few years, the artist's body of work has been tied to his long-distance travels with a bare minimum of luggage and an immense desire to get under the skin of every place he visits.

Food companies in Greece are continuing to invest in production with their eyes firmly fixed on developments abroad, as foreign markets have been their only field of expansion in recent years, if not the very reason they have managed to weather the crisis.

Greece's high tax rates are eating into corporate profits and depriving local businesses of vital liquidity that could have been used for funding investments to support their corporate activity, a survey by Grant Thornton has shown.

BELGRADE - It has finally become clear there are no secret plans to draw Serbia into NATO, Jelena Milic, director of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, said as a two-day international conference as part of the 4th Belgrade NATO Week drew to a close Tuesday.

WARSAW - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic on Tuesday urged Visegrad Group and Western Balkan FMs to support Serbia's efforts to open Chapters 5, 25 and 26 in its EU accession talks in December as that would give a strong impetus to the country's European prospects.

BELGRADE - Minister of Interior Nebojsa Stefanovic spoke with the new head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Andrea Orizio Tuesday, noting that the goal of the ministry is to continue the European integration by conducting reforms and fulfilling the obligations from Chapter 24.

He stressed that he expects further support and continued cooperation with the OSCE.