Non-performing loan

The managing officers of real estate investment companies as well as foreign funds exploring the Greek market in search of opportunities have their eyes fixed on the real estate assets in the portfolios of secured nonperforming loans that were sold last year.

The intentions of investment funds active in purchasing nonperforming loans portfolios in Greece, having placed some 1.3 billion euros in the market to date, will be tested in 2019, as Alpha Bank, National and Piraeus are planning fresh sales adding up to more than 6 billion euros.

The desire of Greek banks to rid themselves of the burden that thousands of repossessed real estate properties put on their expenses is reshaping the country's property sector, local market professionals told Xinhua in recent interviews.

The International Monetary Fund has called on Cyprus to mitigate the main vulnerabilities the economy is faced with, as headwinds are threatening sustained economic growth.

EU ambassadors backed on Wednesday new rules to facilitate banks' sales of bad loans on their books but failed to agree on a reform that would make it easier for lenders to recover assets from borrowers who default.

The problem of the nonperforming loans burdening Greek banks is nothing new. The fact that it remains unresolved so close to the next general election can be attributed to the dilatory tactics of a government that has been reluctant to bear the political cost of what would basically be a viable economic reform, one that would only bring benefits. 

Greece is sending out a signal that the country has returned to normality, although several challenges remain, the head of the European Commission's mission to Greece, Declan Costello, said on Wednesday.

Greece is now firmly at the focus of international entities investing in nonperforming loans, despite the uncertainties within those funds on the future returns of such investments and their reservations about the country's administrative environment.

Economic growth will be the key that will help strengthen social cohesion, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras told the Delphi Economic Forum Sunday.

Stournaras reiterated that Greece must persist with reforms, market opening, new technologies, education and its linking with the job market and, above all, must never return to the failed policies of the past.

A European Commission report on the Greek economy released today calls for a swifter implementation of reforms and expresses concerns about the long-term impact on the budget of the government's minimum wage hike.