Eurozone crisis

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) report, entitled "Regional Economic Prospects", says that if a short-term effect of the COVID-19 epidemic is accepted, economies are expected to shrink by an average of 3.5% worldwide this year, compared to 4.8% in 2021, noting that these forecasts are uncertain due to uncertainty with the development of the crisis.

Only healthy and consistent enterprises will have access to the state-guaranteed working capital funded by commercial banks and the Guarantee Fund.

Greece could limit this year's recession to 5-8 percent after taking into account the government's implemented and planned relief measures which will amount to 24 billion euros, the country's Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday.

He said if support measures had not been taken, the recession could reach 13 percent this year.

Greek private sector bank deposits rose in March for the second month in a row, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

Business and household deposits increased to 145.08 billion euros ($157.44 billion) from 142.24 billion in February, Bank of Greece data showed.

Against the dramatic forecasts for fiscal figures to slump to levels reminiscent of the worst years of the debt crisis, there is also optimism within the government that things will actually turn out to be rather better.

Greece's economy will contract by about 5.0 percent to 9.0 percent this year under baseline and adverse scenarios, hit by lockdown measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, an influential think-tank forecast on Wednesday.

Memories of Greece's bailout years are returning as a result of the macroeconomic shocks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund, which however is also predicting a return to growth in 2021.

Finance minister Christos Staikouras welcomed the results of the historic Eurogroup pandemic rescue package which he depicted as a satisfactory but hardly optimal compromise.

Staikouras said that Greece's three main demands were met.

The first is direct liquidity for businesses which will not be laid out through banks.

Greece's bond yields have eased from a year-high recorded in March, but remain above the all-time lows posted earlier this year.
In its latest weekly bulletin, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) went as far as calling for an immediate market foray, before other bigger countries do so, with an impact on yields.

The World Bank has revised significantly its estimates of the Romanian economy's advance this year, down to 0.3 percent from 3.8 percent, as projected three months ago, but growth would gradually bounce back in the second half of 2020 and further accelerate in 2021 to 4.4 percent, according to the World Bank's economic update spring 2020.