Deleveraging

Fitch Ratings as upgraded Cyprus' long-term foreign currency issuer default rating from BBB to BBB+ with a positive outlook.

Greece's economic outlook has improved notably, but significant challenges remain, the IMF said in a report released on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund sees Greece returning to fiscal consolidation, with systematic achievement of primary surpluses and debt deleveraging in the coming years, per its spring fiscal report, published on Wednesday.

The Intralot Group on Thursday announced it has entered a lock-up agreement with an ad hoc group of noteholders, holding in excess of 75% of the 250 million euros senior unsecured notes due 2021, pursuant to which the parties agree to support the balance sheet optimization transactions.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) announced on Tuesday that it had entered into a definite agreement with Bain Capital Credit for the sale of a Romanian-risk corporate nonperforming exposures portfolio ("Project Danube") with a total gross book value of around 174 million euros.

Greek banks' full repayment of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) drawn from the domestic central bank is credit positive as it reduces their funding costs, ratings agency Moody's said in a credit outlook report on Thursday.

Three Greek banks - Piraeus, National and Alpha - are among the world's top 40 lenders in financing oceangoing shipping, as the Greek credit sector has increased its share in funding Greek shipping companies in the face of a global reduction in marine lending, according to 2017 data compiled by Petrofin Bank Research.

Toronto-based ratings agency DBRS gave on Tuesday a positive view of the ongoing reduction in the nonperforming loans of Cypriot banks that has amounted to nearly a quarter from their peak in early 2015.

It noted in a statement that the NPL stock has been declining mostly driven by the non-financial corporations (NFCs) sector.

The world is swimming in a record $152 trillion in debt, the International Monetary Fund said on Oct. 5, even as the institution encourages some countries to spend more to boost flagging growth if they can afford it. 

While euro area sovereigns' ratings will likely remain stable in 2016-17, fading fiscal consolidation, limited progress on structural reforms and an increasingly fluid political landscape limit upside potential and create longer-term risks, said Moody's Investors Service in a report published on March 18.