Economic disasters

The slowdown in economic activity is taking its toll on employment. According to figures released on Oct. 15, the seasonally adjusted non-farm unemployment rate surged to 12.5 percent in July.

The growth rate for the second quarter has been announced at 2.1 percent - far below expectations. As a consequence, unemployment is rapidly escalating

By Sotiris Nikas

Despite the slowdown registered in Q2 in its growth pace, Romania's economy is still on track for the 2.8 percent year-end growth target the state budget is built upon, Minister-delegate for Budget Liviu Voinea told AGERPRES on Thursday.

Piraeus Bank SA has made 1.58 billion euros ($2.1 billion) of loans on environmentally friendly projects since 2007, boosting jobs and helping the lender’s bottom line, bank officials said.

Consumer prices in Bulgaria will drop by 0.4% in 2014, which means there will be deflation, said the IMF in its spring World economic outlook. 

The Fund has increased its forecast for Bulgaria's GDP by 0.1%, to 1.6%. The expectations for the unemployment, however, remain pessimistic. It is expected that by the end of the year it will be 12.5%. 

Greek retail sales by volume fell 1.9 percent in January from the same month last year, statistics service ELSTAT said on Friday.

The reading had dropped at an annual pace of 6.1 percent in December.