Financial economics

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to
please everybody.” The Central Bank of Turkey’s Gov. Erdem Başçı found
out the wisdom in this Bill Cosby quote the hard way this past week.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Finance Ministry data published on Thursday concerning state debtors came as a shock, revealing that almost 2.5 million people are unable to pay their taxes. As a result, the new debts created in the first four months of the year came to 4.3 billion euros, or 1.07 billion per month.

BELGRADE - Finance Minister Lazar Krstic said Wednesday that the government of Serbia passed an amendment to postpone the implementation of the amended rates for pension and disability insurance contributions by one month, to August 1.

By Julien Toyer & Lisa Jucca

When Angel Gomez and Maria Luisa Fernandez retired a decade ago, they imagined spending their pensions largely on restaurant meals, holidays and toys for the grandkids. Today, their retirement money helps to support five families.

Greek lender Attica Bank has hired advisers to look for an investor to take part in a planned equity offering, as it becomes the fifth of the country's banks to tap international markets to plug a capital hole, it said on Tuesday.

By Tasos Telloglou

New debts to the Greek state are constantly mounting while the repayment of old ones has slowed down considerably, according to a Finance Ministry document seen by Kathimerini.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The effective tackling of nonperforming loans, getting credit expansion moving again and completing the return of the banking sector to private hands are the three main objectives of local lenders following the successful completion of the second stage of their recapitalization.

Greece seems to be on its way out of the recession after international agency Fitch raised its rating for the country to B from B- with a stable outlook.

Another agency, Standard&Poor's made on Friday a similar move for Spain, another Southern European country severely affected by the debt crisis. Madrid's debt rating is now BBB, up from BBB-, which was just above junk status.

Fitch ratings agency has upgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating by one notch, citing the country's improved deficit figures.

Although still deep in junk status, Friday's upgrade on Greek bonds, from B- to B, was a boost for the country that has been struggling through a devastating financial crisis for the past four years.

By Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece’s credit rating will be increased one level by Fitch Ratings, which cited an improving economic and fiscal outlook for the country that sparked Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.