Great Recession in Europe

Greece is expected to have a net allocation of 33.4 billion euros from a European recovery fund, while the country's contribution to the fund will total 10.1 billion euros for a gross receipt of 43.5 billion euros, according to a plan presented by the European Commission on Wednesday.

We have gone out on the international markets and the interest in Romania has been almost 14 billion euros, of which we have chosen to borrow 3.3 billion euros, the Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said after the government meeting on Wednesday. He specified that the loan offered the possibility of financing expenditure from the budget without any problems.

Total credit in Greece's banking system expanded 0.7 percent year-on-year in March after a 1.0 percent decline in the previous month, Bank of Greece data showed on Friday.

[Reuters]

Inflation turned negative in Greece in April, largely because of the collapsing oil prices, the EU statistics agency Eurostat announced Thursday.

The consumer price index dropped 0.9 percent in April, compared to April 2019; in March, inflation was 0.2% and last April, 1.1%.

Greece's current account deficit widened in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

Central bank data showed the deficit was 1.29 billion euros ($1.39 billion) from a deficit of 1.18 billion euros in January 2019.

[Reuters]

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced a 10 billion euro spending plan to prop up the already battered Greek economy in order to survive the unfolding global economic disaster caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Turkey's unemployment rate in December 2019 stood at 13.7 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed on March 10.

The figure was marginally up from the same month of the previous year, rising 0.2 percentage point, TÜİK said in a statement.

Greece's current account deficit shrank in December 2019 compared with the same month a year earlier, the Bank of Greece said on Thursday.

Central bank data showed the deficit was 0.54 billion euros ($582.98 million), down from 1.514 billion euros in December 2018. Tourism revenues increased to 289 million euros from 272 million in the same month in 2018.

Turkey's industrial output in November 2019 was higher than the EU's average in the same month.

While the EU average was negative 1.3 percent, the index dropped 1.5 percent in the eurozone, and rose 5.1 percent in Turkey, according to the data from Eurostat and TÜİK.

In a report, published last night, the World Bank raises the 2018 economic growth forecast of Bulgaria from 3 to 3.6 percent, BNR reported.

For this and for next year, the World Bank is also raising its forecast - a 3 percent growth rate for 2020, and 3.1 percent for 2021. In June last year its growth forecast was 2.8 percent for both years.