Economy of the European Union

The Letta and Draghi reports serve as a "wake-up call" for the EU, Greek Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said in Luxembourg on Tuesday, where he took part in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Lyudmila Petkova, confirmed that the draft budget for 2025 will target a deficit of no more than 3% of the country's GDP. This assurance was made during a meeting with European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni ahead of the Eurogroup meeting, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance.

Greek Minister of National Economy and Finance, Costis Hatzidakis, will travel to Luxembourg today to participate in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings.

On Monday, 7 October, the Eurogroup will meet to discuss the competitiveness of the eurozone, the European Capital Markets Union, the digital euro, and preparations for the eurozone summit scheduled for 18 October.

Inflation in Greece is proving to be persistent and with a significant deviation from that of the eurozone, as despite the slight slowdown in its growth rate it remained at the level of 3% in September, while at the same time in the eurozone it stood at 1.8%.

Speaking before the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), the chairwoman of the ECB stressed that the world is changing fast and Europe is lagging. According to her, the competitiveness gap of the European economy against the US and China cannot be closed except by further integration of the eurozone to address its structural challenges.

The government has trimmed its forecast for 2024 economic growth for a second time this year to 2.2%, as stagnation in eurozone countries hits investment and exports, the finance ministry has said.

From projected growth of 2.9% at the beginning of the year, the forecast was cut to 2.5% in April, also because of a wider EU slowdown.

Chinese leaders are considering pumping more than $140 billion into the country's large state-run banks in the first such move to support the flagging economy since the global financial crisis, a report said on Thursday.

In June, Bulgaria's services sector saw a monthly production increase of 0.6 percent, while Eurostat data showed a decline in the EU for the same period. Production in the Eurozone's services sector dropped by 0.8 percent compared to May, with the overall EU figure falling by 0.9 percent.

Initial Eurostat estimates show that the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices in Greece inched up to 3.1% in August, from 3% in July, the fifth-highest annual rate in the eurozone.

Overall, the inflation rate in the 20-member eurozone dropped to 2.2% in August, from 2.6% in July.

In July, annual inflation in the Eurozone increased slightly to 2.6%, up from 2.5% in June. For the entire European Union, inflation reached 2.8%, rising from 2.6% the previous month, according to Eurostat.