News archive of January 2020

The government's unease regarding revelations of one owner having more than one football team is obvious.

The stance of competent authorities, including the prime minister, is wrong-headed as it is the result of the awkwardness that arises from the government's inability to handle the current crisis.

The increase in the number of hotels in Athens and the even steeper growth in accommodation available through online short-term rental platforms have started to affect occupancy rates and revenues per room at the capital's hotels.

After Brexit, Bulgarians will be able to travel to the UK with an ID card. This was reported to BTV by British Ambassador to Bulgaria Emma Hopkins.

Police on Friday evacuated a building on a central Athens street which, they said, had become a hangout for drug users and dealers.

Six people - five foreign nationals and a Greek woman - were arrested, while municipal cleaning crews removed 35 tons of garbage from the building on Liosion Street.

It's official - the Athens Stock Exchange was the best performing equity market in Europe last year, reflecting international investors' newfound confidence in Greece's recovery. Across the board, foreign investors are putting their money in Greek assets from stocks and bonds to real estate and helping to drive foreign direct investment in Greece to record highs.

The raises and retroactive payments due to recipients of main and auxiliary pensions will be paid out in June. They will be be based on the changes included in the Labor Ministry's draft law, as all 2.8 million main pensions will need to be recalculated after it is passed.

The recent incident in Greek soccer is indeed didactic, leading to one general conclusion and several smaller related ones - all, alas, quite sad. The general conclusion is that the country has made little progress in terms of mentality in the 200 years that it has claimed to be an organized state.

As of end-December 2019, the assets of the banking system were BGN 114.2 billion, or by BGN 2.7 billion (2.4%) more compared to end-September. The dynamics of the balance sheet items in the fourth quarter of 2019 was influenced by the consolidation process in the banking sector.

The notion that the refugee/migration crisis can be dealt with in some way by installing a barrier in the sea is really nothing more than wishful thinking.

Concerns over the Chinese coronavirus have proven particularly contagious among stock markets, with Athinon Avenue suffering its fifth session of decline in as many days on Friday, for the first time in five months. Also, for the first time since August, the benchmark ended a month with losses, of 0.63 percent.