News archive of June 2020

Tax revenues slumped and state expenditure soared in the first five months of the year, as the government tried to tackle the impact of the pandemic. However, the Finance Ministry appears determined to offer enterprises additional support over the summer through the successful program of loans with favorable terms, dubbed the "Deposit To Be Returned."

The management of the National Bank of Greece Group is keeping an open channel of communication with CVC Capital Partners for the sale of its subsidiary, Ethniki Insurance.

On Tuesday the group provided a presentation of the country's leading insurer to the fund at its request, as CVC has returned to the process after the pandemic kept it at bay for months.

In less than a year, banks and servicers have restructured total loans of 12.3 billion euros, according to a Finance Ministry report on the progress of credit management. The loans restructured between July 2019 and May 2020 numbered 252,529 and concern all categories - i.e. corporate, consumer and mortgage loans.

The conditions created by the pandemic call for consistency and speed in the implementation of reforms and for the socially sensitive, fair and efficient management of the significant European resources to come, according to the new president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), Dimitris Papalexopoulos.

Greece has turned into Europe's junkyard for used vehicles, as the local market has been dominated by imports of used cars and vans which other countries tend to push abroad due to their high emission rates.

Whenever the sewage of scandal bubbles up to the surface, those who see this as a weapon with which to destroy their rivals are overjoyed, while those exposed by the revelations claim either that they are victims of conspiracy or are no worse than those who preceded them. Most of us, having learned to trust no one, will believe what we want to believe.

The outcome of the Novartis scandal in the United States makes for some depressing comparisons with the progress of the case here in Greece.

The national federation of property owners (POMIDA) warned on Friday that the extension of the deadline for the declaration of hitherto undeclared spaces in buildings, set to clear Parliament on Monday, does not concern any empty flats or those declared to have no electricity supply.

The Greek stock market did not take the same path on Friday as the rest of the eurozone, which saw mild gains, as in the latter half of the week's final session sellers dominated trading on a day of very low turnover. Market insiders speak of a number of investors withdrawing from some positions in order to take part in upcoming share capital increases and corporate bond issues.

A 74-year-old man in the eastern town of Volos was rushed to hospital on Thursday evening after collapsing from starvation in his home.

According to local media, the unnamed man relied on the charity of neighbors and the Church for food and other necessities, but had not been seen around the neighborhood in recent days.