How the world sees Greece
Greece’s supermarket and cash and carry sector has declined at an annual rate of 3.7 percent over the last four years, hit – albeit to a lesser degree than other domains in the country’s economy – by the financial crisis and a drop in demand, according to an annual survey conducted by ICAP.
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The Greek government on Monday announced a shake-up of the team negotiating with the country’s international creditors, after Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis came under fierce criticism from his eurozone peers at a summit in Riga last week due to a lack of progress. Authorities also heralded a multi-bill that is to feature a batch of reforms that the government hopes it can pass through Parliament to secure the release of much-needed rescue loans.
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The number of international tourists visiting Athens will continue to grow in 2015 provided that stability and a sense of security in Greece can be maintained, Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis told a press conference marking the opening of the third annual Travel Trade Athens on Monday.
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The new restaurant, inspired by his wife's Greek heritage, will feature food that "isn't overly complicated. It's about healthy, light, delicious food," ...
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Costco Wholesale has switched the sourcing of the extra virgin olive oil that goes into its Kirkland Signature two-liter bottle from Italy to Greece, in what ...
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Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis did himself in with his abrasive style with his Eurozone peers during negotiations. The post World Press View: Varoufakis’ Tough Guy Act Brought Him Down Hard appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greece has shuffled the team involved in bailout talks with the country's international creditors, a senior government official said Monday, in a move ...
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Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote a comment for Project Syndicate, A New Deal for Greece: Three months of negotiations between the Greek government and our European and international partners have brought about much convergence on the steps ...
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The government’s aim is to clinch an agreement with creditors within days, Greek government Vice President Yiannis Dragasakis said as he exited the first meeting of the government’s newly formed political negotiations team on Monday evening. “The agreement must be completed in the first days of May or, why not, at the end of April. This is our goal,” he said. Asked why the special team had been set up, Dragasakis said the European side has a multi-level system that is “solid and monolithic,” consisting of the Eurogroup, Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) and technical teams. “In this political negotiations team we will handle issues requiring political handling,” he added. According to Greece’s Finance Ministry, the team decided to prepare a draft bill that will codify the reform proposals included in the list prepared by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis for the ongoing negotiations with the institutions. The draft bill will address fiscal issues, tax administration, auctioning of TV frequencies, taxing TV ads, reforming the Civil Procedure Code, reforming the administration and other measures, the Ministry said. In addition to Dragasakis, the meeting was attended by Varoufakis, who is responsible for the team, Deputy Minister for International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos, who will act as its coordinator, Minister of State Nikos Pappas, Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism Minister George Stathakis, government General Secretary Spiros Sagias, head of the Economic Experts Council Georgios Chouliarakis, SYRIZA Parliamentary Group secretary Christos Mantas and SYRIZA General Secretary Tasos Koronakis. (source: ana-mpa)
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The chances of a Greece exiting the European single currency stand at 40% currently, according to a poll of money market traders published by Reuters earlier today. On the opposite, 60% of those questioned said Greece could remain part of the Eurozone even if it defaults on its debt payments. Moreover, forecasts on the likelihood of a Grexit ranged from none to a high 75% in the survey, which was participated by 20 traders. That compares to the 28% median in a poll of economists taken last week. Although, those questioned were divided over the key question on “whether it can miss debt payments and still hold on to the euro.” 12 of them said Greece can default and still remain in the currency bloc while 8 said not. “If you go bankrupt, people would still expect you to repay them in the original currency, right? And you would still be working with the same currency,” a trader said, questioning at the same time “so why would a Greek default include leaving the Eurozone?” Other traders said Greece cannot stay in the bloc if it defaults and so assigned a higher probability of a Grexit. “There will be too much pushback from [other] members. They will not want to be associated with a country that has blatantly disregarded the rules,” another trader explained. The leftist-led Greek government is currently struggling to meet civil workers’ payments and pensions, while it also needs to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) repayment of nearly one billion euros, due in May.
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Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has earlier today decorated an army sergeant of the Hellenic Army, whose photos rescuing a young migrant from Eritrea following a deadly shipwreck on the island of Rhodes last week made headlines across the globe. Sergeant Antonis Deligiorgis was awarded the Cross of Excellency by Kammenos at a ceremony in Athens today for his role in saving the lives of 20 passengers from a ship carrying migrants and asylum seekers from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Rhodes after it crashed on a reef. The Greek sergeant was photographed assisting Eritrean pregnant survivor Wegasi Nebiat, in an image that occupied the front pages of newspapers across the world. It should be noted that the 26-year-old Eritrean woman gave birth to a boy last week in the hospital of Rhodes and announced that her son will be named after her baby’s Greek savior, Antonis. Three people died in the shipwreck, while 90 others from Syria and Eritrea were rescued. The boat hit a reef at Zephyros beach in Rhodes and the migrants started to flee to the shore, jumping into the sea, without waiting for help. This peculiar incident has left local residents and hundreds of tourists speechless. A crowd gathered near the beach, watching from a distance, as Greek police and coast guard officers rushed to the scene to help the migrants reach the shore safely.
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It was not clear whether those charged, among them the Greek Daimler car dealer, Greek officials and Daimler executives when the contracts were ...
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Main opposition New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is scheduled to depart for Strasbourg on Tuesday, after attending a memorial service for the late Greek statesman Constantine Karamanlis. Samaras will attend and speak at a regular session of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament, and will also meet with several European officials. He is scheduled to meet with European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) leader Gianni Pittella and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) leader Guy Verhofstadt. According to New Democracy, Samaras’ aim is to support the efforts to achieve an agreement and explain to European partners that Greek people do not want to exit the Eurozone. The party also said that the strategy followed by the SYRIZA-led government, which leads to a rift with the country’s partners, is very dangerous for the Greece’s economy and called on the government to sign a deal quickly and implement the agreed reforms. (source: ana-mpa)
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Within a few weeks, Greece will not be able to pay salaries, pensions and loan obligations to the International Monetary Fund and other lenders, unless a bailout deal is reached.
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Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis denied that he has been sidelined by Alexis Tsipras following the shake-up of the Greek negotiating team. According to Star TV, speaking briefly to reporters, ouside the finance ministry in Athens, Varoufakis said that ...
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Part-time workers in Greece feel under-used and would like to be employed more, Eurostat reportsA majority of part-time workers wished to work more hours while being available to do so in Greece (72.1%), Cyprus (65.9%) and Spain (57.3%).
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Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan added to calls on Greece to come up with proposals to open the way for a deal on fresh finance from international lenders, but said policy makers were not working on a scenario for Greece leaving the euro. He said that Italy was not at risk from the strained situation in Greece, saying conditions had changed since the acute phase of the euro zone crisis in 2012 when Greece's problems created fears for the future of the single currency.
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A German government spokesman confirmed on Monday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation on Sunday but declined to comment on the contents of their conversation. Bild newspaper reported on Monday that Tsipras had called Merkel as well as Euro group head Jeroen Dijsselbloem to try to convince them of the need for more help for Greece and for the need for an emergency meeting of EU leaders this week. Bild said the reason for the call is that the Greek government has run out of money. The situation is more than dramatic." German government spokesman confirmed Tsipras-Merkel phone call on Sunday evening, however, no comment was issued on content of talks.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece reshuffled its bailout negotiating team on Monday following fierce criticism of its finance minister, meeting with market applause as investors hoped it will facilitate a deal to save the country from bankruptcy.
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By Renee Maltezou and Deepa Babington ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday reshuffled his team handling talks with European and IMF lenders, a move widely seen as an effort to relegate embattled Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to a less active role in negotiations. An anti-austerity economist who has angered peers with his brash style, Varoufakis is facing calls to quit after returning from a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Riga isolated and empty-handed while Athens scrambles to avoid bankruptcy. Tsipras and senior aides publicly voiced support for Varoufakis at a meeting on Sunday and agreed the finance minister would supervise a new team negotiating a reforms deal with lenders, a government official said. This would elevate him from his current position and give him a more active role in the negotiations, pushing Varoufakis to the sidelines.
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By 416 B.C., the Peloponnesian War already was a decade and a half in progress. The city-state of Athens and the Spartan's Peloponnesian League were locked in an endurance struggle for regional dominance. The base of Athenian power was its navy and a request for aid was received from two Athenian allies in Sicily. The great general and orator Pericles has long died as the assembly convenes the issue before them. Alcibiades, a man who would sell his loyalties in this conflict more than once, uses his serpent-like sophistry to debate the sensible but outmatched General Nicias. The catastrophic Sicilian expedition cost much treasure and decimated the Athenian navy. It marked the end of Athenian dominance; an era that gave us Socrates and Plato, the architects and sculptors of the Parthenon, Hippocrates, and medical inquiry, and the inventor of historiography, Herodotus. Wind the stars ahead just a bit under two and a half millennia and come now another false prophet. Were this nation a river, its course will be inexorably altered and its flow may soon but slow to a trickle. The election of a radical leftist on campaign promises to force repudiation of outstanding public loans speaks volumes on the ethos of the Greek population. Newly installed Prime Minister Alex Tsipras also vowed a rebellion against EU-mandated austerity and to magically raise wages. Beneath the gossamer web of bravado, this once great nation, this source from which sprung Western-style governance, is reduced to groveling. On April 9 Greece scrounged together a 460 million euro payment due to the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Collective uncertainty whether funds were available underscores the parlous state of Greek finances. May 12 looms the next big test. On that day, Prime Minister Tsipras, and flamboyant finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, will have to pull out (again for the IMF) a 767 million euro (around $840 million) rabbit from the treasury hat. Without bailout money the money just "ain't" there. What Will Happen? There will be the drama of a Sophocles tragedy but in the end frustrated Eurozone finance ministers currently meeting in Riga, Latvia will reluctantly approve, or at worst defer, the vapid Varoufakis basket of reforms. The first tranche of 1.2 billion euro will be released in time for the May 12th payment. Next, there are nearly $1.6 IMF payments due by June 19. Within more quibbling, cowardice will again prevail, and more heroin and needles will be distributed. The trouble comes on July 20 and August 20 when $8.0 billion euros are due to the ECB (European Central Bank). All in, Greece has close 20 billion euro payable in the next six months. Sometime during this period Germany and the Eurozone will have had enough. Pressure on the Merkel administration will demand Germany to stop making the next door neighbor's mortgage payments. The Greek Reform Plan or Lack Thereof About a month ago Mr. Varoufakis submitted to Greek creditors a theoretically detailed 26-page plan that spells out reforms intended to right this Titanic of an economy. Its supercilious tone is only exceeded by the amorphous nature of the proposals that it contains. In the introduction, the finance minister pontificates: "The larger purpose of this document is........to unlock short term financing that will permit the Greek government to meet immediate obligations..." Not so subtly implied is that reforms, fixing this tumor filled economy, is secondary to the addict getting resupplied with drugs. The short term financing to which he refers is a $7.2 billion bailout (distributed in phases) once the Troika (ECB, IMF, and European Commission) have blessed this so-called reform plan. Like a schoolmaster, Mr. Varoufakis arrogantly continues his lessons: "The Hellenic Republic considers itself to be a proud indefeasible......and irrevocable member of the Eurozone. The viability of that Union, and especially the common currency, is now in question....." The only thing in question is whether Greece will remain a part of the Eurozone. This so-called "reform package" as near as I can tell, mainly talks about doing a better job of curbing the Greek national pastime of tax evasion. There are plans to tackle the illegal trade in oil, tobacco, and alcohol. There are aspirations to combat VAT fraud. There is some lip service to making government more efficient and curbing pension growth. To the chagrin of creditors, this redistributionist government has increased pensions by 600 million euros for lower income workers. All politicians must pander to their base. Empirically examined, the Hellenic Republic has little to recommend itself that its words will morph into actions or results. In the six years since the crisis began, GDP has withered 25 percent, unemployment remains around 24 percent and the recently released 2014-2015 World Economic Forum report spells out the both the bleakness and ineptness of this fallen society. Out of 142 total surveyed countries consider the following ranks: Effect of Taxation on Incentives to Work 138 Soundness of Banks 141 Burden of Government Regulation 136 Macroeconomic Environment 135 Wastefulness of Government Spending 131 Government Debt to GDP % 142 Transparency of Govt. Policymaking 120 Ease of Access to Loans 136 Effect of Taxation on Incentives to Invest 141 These statistics trail most third world locales and reflect the abysmal state of the Greek economy. Aristides N. Hatzis, University of Athens professor of law and economics bluntly says, "Most Greeks today do not realize how wealth is created. They still believe that it is the result of government spending, loans, and subsidies and that it can be safeguarded by protectionism and regulation". Speaking of protectionism, Paul Thomsen of the IMF stationed in Greece ads, "where legal restrictions have been lifted (to open a new business), new administrative barriers often crop up". Business cartels often control politicians and the press to keep vested interests intact. This economic paralysis has decayed Greece into a rotted dilapidated society now devoid of creativity and entrepreneurship. It is an ethos that exhibits no moral conundrum about continuing to suckle the Eurozone breast and has even less of a quandary about ever repaying its debts. After all, the populist Tsipras was selected on his pledge to repudiate debts. Mr. Tsipras had few listeners with his debt forgiveness babble. Was there such a distance between now and 2012? In May of that year, Greece was the largest sovereign debt default on record. With a few signatures, agreements were in place that erased 105 billion euros of debt owed to private creditors and reduced the interest rate and lengthened the repayment term for the balance. All in, lenders are said to have lost 75 percent of their investments and now somehow, with a straight face, Greece asks for even more bailout money. At 177 percent, Greece already has the highest debt to GPD ratio in the world. Billions in deposits continue to flee for safer havens leaving Greek banks struggling to remain solvent. The Fallout from a "Grexit." Not much. Some prognosticators predict tremendous volatility, contagion to financially challenged southern neighbors Italy and Spain, and ultimate collapse of the Eurozone. At a roughly 185 billion euros in GDP, reality suggests the Greek economy to be little more than a pimple on an elephants butt in terms of relative size to the $16 trillion Eurozone. The debts to private creditors were mostly dealt with in the 2012 restructuring, so these are now only around 10 percent of Greece's total outstanding 320 billion euro indebtedness. Also European and especially American banks, besides being much better capitalized, have most probably provisioned for potential Greek losses. Fallout to Spain and Italy and Portugal, for the near term at least, will not happen. The low borrowing costs, conferred upon them by Eurozone membership are a powerful incentive for those countries to get their economic houses in working order. As stand-alone credits, these three countries would be rated at or near junk status, costing them many extra billions in debt service costs. ECB President Mario Draghi will cover the airwaves to guarantee all bank deposits, heading off any possible runs on their financial institutions. Greece will reintroduce the Drachma, which, I predict, will initially devalue at least 30 or 40 percent versus the Euro. Unfortunately, Greece imports are nearly twice their exports ($60 billion to $33 billion). Import prices will rise dramatically, but cheaper exports and increased tourism will reduce this trade imbalance. Inflation could become rampant depending on whether the Greek people will change their habits. Greece matters little in today's world. Last week yields on its three-year notes soared 1.83 percent to 28.58 percent. The ten-year bond yield rose slightly to 13.27 percent. This 15 percent yield curve "inversion" is one of the widest since the crisis and represent a powerful indicator traders are expecting Greece to default on its debt. Now a supplicant nation for six years, the financial life support systems will be removed. This once grand Hellenic Republic, with its newly devalued currency, gets relegated to a tourist destination....... albeit a beautiful one that tells a story of a once great culture, which sadly its very own citizens have long abandoned. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are mostly lower in afternoon trading on Monday as investors brace for a busy week of corporate earnings. European shares rallied on the hopes that Greece will strike a deal with its creditors for new bailout money after it reshuffled its negotiating team.
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(This April 26 story corrects context in fourth paragraph on natural gas) By Simon Bahceli NICOSIA (Reuters) - A leftist moderate promising to press for a peace deal in ethnically-split Cyprus swept to victory in a Turkish Cypriot presidential election runoff on Sunday. Mustafa Akinci, standing as an independent, won 60.3 percent of the votes, according to figures provided by the election commission. His rival was incumbent president Dervis Eroglu, a conservative elected five years ago. Akinci, 67, has said he would work with fresh urgency to find a peace deal on Cyprus, split in a 1974 Turkish invasion that was triggered by a short-lived Greek-inspired coup aimed at union with Greece.
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The April 14th decision to remove Cuba off the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism list is the most important, concrete step towards normalization of diplomatic relations with Havana taken by the U.S. government since the Carter Administration. It has both tangible and intangible implications of historical importance to Cuba's relations with the U.S and its triangular relations with other major international actors. First, if Cuba is not a terrorist threat, it is difficult to say that it is a threat to the U.S. at all given the asymmetry of power between the two states, and Cuba's renunciation of nuclear weapons by signing and ratifying the Tlatelolco and nuclear non-proliferation treaties in the late 90s. Second, it clarifies Cuba in America's official narrative not as a security threat but a country in transition, which is more in line both with Cuba's own self-image and how Latin American and European countries see it. Such a description undermines any rationality for the embargo and lends itself to a U.S. policy that emphasizes engagement and people to people contacts. Third, it enables Obama to stop applying the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917 to Cuba, the law on which much of the executive branch's sanctions regime, including limits on American citizens' right to travel, is based. If next September the president decides not to renew his authority to impose sanctions to Cuba under this law, citizens could challenge in court the prohibition to travel and succeed. Fourth, it reduces Cuban state's liability for individual claims in U.S. courts for acts that occurred under Cuba's jurisdiction; cases that have already cost the island's frozen accounts in U.S. banks millions of dollars. Taking Cuba off the list of terrorist nations would help an eventual settlement of claims between Cuba and USA, as part of a normalization process. Fifth, so long as Cuba was falsely designated on the terror list, it would not have agreed to opening embassies. Now the road to embassies in both capitals is open. Similarly, Cuba off the list lessens the regulatory risks and enforcement threats used by the U.S. government to pressure banks not to deal with Cuba, giving the nation greater latitude in gaining finance and benefitting from two-way trade. Sixth, it encourages other countries to foster closer ties with Cuba, as it eliminates the drama involved in having commercial relations with a country designated a sponsor of terrorism by Washington. This will be especially meaningful for the European Union, which is also reviewing its policy towards Cuba, which has always resisted the extraterritoriality of U.S. sanctions on its companies. Seven: taking Cuba off the list means countries can take the State Department list, a U.S. national security tool, more seriously. Cuba's inclusion on the list was seen on the island as an insulting lie. Removing this unnecessary barb, that has prevented bilateral relations, will build confidence for more flexible Cuban nationalist positions. The gratuitous inclusion on the list has harmed U.S. soft power, in many sectors of Cuban and Latin American civil society. In Cuba, ending such charade became a nationalist cause. One statement that most hurt Yoani Sánchez, opposition blogger, was her insistence on keeping Cuba on the list of terrorist countries because according to her: "The Castros have not put their guns away." Another important element is the effect that taking Cuba off the list will have on American and Latin American perceptions of the power held by pro-embargo Cuban Americans. The legal procedure for removing Cuba from the list dubs them the losers from the start. The president simply gives Congress 45 days advance notice of his intention to remove Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. Obama requires the advice of Congress, not its consent. The president knows how to count and he realized the pro-embargo legislators don't have the votes to pass a bill or a joint resolution immune from a presidential veto. In conclusion, President Obama prevails. Legislators can comment, write letters to the president and reflect on Obama's decision. Thus, opponents such as Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Robert Menendez are stuck in the role of the chorus in Greek tragedies: shouting, screaming and crying but not playing a substantial role. Cuba will be off the State Department list of States Sponsors of terrorism. A major roadblock to the rapprochement track between Cuba and the United States has been removed. Dawn Gable contributed to this piece. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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(Reuters) - World shares hit a new high on Monday, led by China, though the global rally faded in Europe as investors looked ahead to central bank meetings in the United States and worried over Greece. The dollar edged up but held close to Friday's 2 1/2 ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller agreed last week on a “roadmap” for a multi-billion dollar pipeline project to transport gas from Russia to Greece. The long-term plan is a further sign of warming geopolitical ties ...
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European shares edged lower on Monday, with persistent concerns about Greece's debt situation prompting some investors to take profits after recent strong gains. There were also stock-specific declines. Deutsche Bank fell 4.9 percent as investors doubted ...
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10.10: The Footsie remained lower as the morning session progressed unsettled by nerves over the Greek debt situation and uncertainties ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting later this week. By midmorning, the FTSE 100 was 30.0 points, or 0.4 per cent ...
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But despite these signals, Greek negotiating team is being shaken up - giving more responsibility to Euclid Tsakalotos, the government’s chief economics spokesman. Via Reuters: Tsipras, in a meeting on Sunday with senior aides and ministers including the ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke with senior European officials about speeding up talks over a new bailout deal, after a deadlock in negotiations prompted some eurozone ministers to suggest discussing a “Plan B” in the event the negotiations fail.
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NICOSIA: Greek Cypriots welcomed the election of a moderate Turkish Cypriot leader in northern Cyprus Monday, saying they anticipated a swift resumption of stalled peace talks. Turkish Cypriot independent Mustafa Akinci swept to victory in presidential ...
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Tensions have been rising in Greece as the country inches closer to ... A big source of that tension has been Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance ...
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The government's aim is to clinch an agreement with Greece's creditors within days, Greek deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis said as he exited the first meeting of the government's newly-formed “political negotiations” team on Monday evening. "The agreement must be ...
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Greece reshuffled its bailout-negotiating team, reining in Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, after three months of talks with creditors failed to unlock aid and a meeting with his euro-area counterparts ended in acrimony.The coordination of the ...
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Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may be ready to compromise with the EU and introduce reforms. Finance minister Varoufakis could be removed from the chief negotiator's position, news organizations in Athens report.
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Rumors over a so-called “Plan B” on a solution to Greece’s long-standing crisis have been topping international media in recent weeks, although top European officials have rejected the speculation. Today it was Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan to add his voice to calls on Greece to finally submit its list of economic reforms in order to pave the way for a new deal that would provide the country with the much-needed fresh assistance from its international creditors. As he said, the European policy makers are not considering a Grexit scenario. “As far as I am aware, there is no ‘Plan B’ on Greece,” he stressed while addressing foreign reporters in Rome earlier today, explaining that “the aim is to get a rapid accord with Athens.” Moreover, he said that the message Greece should receive is that much time has already been wasted and the leftist-led government needs to conclude with a detailed reforms proposal as soon as possible. Commenting on the reportedly hostile environment Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis encountered on Friday’s Eurogroup meeting in Riga, the Italian Economy Minister denied such reports. Finally, he underlined that Italy is not at risk from the strained situation in Greece, as the conditions have changed since 2012 when Greece’s problems created fears for the single currency’s future. Padoan’s comments come just a few days after a similar positioning by a senior Greek government official, who explained that Athens and its international creditors have not agreed on a “Plan B” in case the country fails to pay the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on time or default.
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Yet another declaration of its frustration expressed today the German Finance Ministry, regarding the lack of progress Greece has achieved in regards to its economic reforms list. As it was highlighted, Berlin is patient but it is clearly Athens that should make the next move. “Our goal is to keep Greece in the euro. That’s what we are working for intensively. But we have to make it clear once more that the ball is in Greece’s court,” German Finance Ministry spokesperson Martin Jaeger told reporters earlier today, adding that “we are waiting for proposals and have been waiting for weeks. It is frustrating but we are patient.” Jaeger concluded that he hopes Greece will present its proposals on time for the next scheduled meeting of European single currency Finance Ministers on May 11. It should be noted that despite his expressed trust to Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras proceeded with forming a new political negotiating team, putting outspoken Varoufakis at the helm but appointing Deputy Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos as the group coordinator. The forming of a political negotiating group was decided on Sunday during a meeting at the government headquarters, chaired by the Greek Premier. Greek Government General Secretary Spyros Sagias and Fiscal Policy General Secretary Nikos Theocharakis complete the group. The latter was appointed to draft a growth plan for the Greek economy. The plan will be the basis of negotiations for the June agreement, when the bailout program extension expires. Varoufakis’ replacement is seen in Athens as a sign of him being held responsible for the delay in negotiations.
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French, German and Italian stocks all rose more than 1 per cent after Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras added two economists to the team that has ...
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(Recasts, updates prices, adds comment). * Greece reshuffles bailout negotiating team. * Fed, other central bank meetings key to week ahead.
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Greece doesn't just need money to service their bonds and IMF loans, which are what the US press has been fixating on (because we are one of the ...
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Athens • Greece reshuffled its bailout negotiating team on Monday following fierce criticism of its finance minister, meeting with market applause as ...
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When Alternate Foreign Minister for International Econimic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos, newly annointed as chief "political negotiator" with Greece's creditors, needled the opposition in Parliament by saying that only those who actually negotiate make mistakes, his rhetoric ...
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Leading shares come off their best levels after election poll news but still close at record highLeading shares hit a new peak - just - helped by a rise in banking and mining shares as well as intriguing developments in Greece which appeared to be taken positively. But a poll showing a 6 point lead for the Conservatives in next week’s general election took some of the shine off.The FTSE 100 finished 33.28 points higher at 7103.98, around 8 points above the previous record close reached on 15 April. But it closed well below the 7122 level it reached earlier in the day, before news of the UK poll emerged.The new negotiating team will look different, but should they employ any particularly different tactic, they would be ignoring the very reason they are currently in office, namely their anti-austerity platform. For this reason, I expect any temporary jubilance in the markets to be just that. Continue reading...
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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks traded mixed in the early afternoon Monday as investors looked ahead to a busy week for earnings news. European shares rallied on the hopes that Greece will strike a deal with its creditors to avert default after news it had reshuffled its negotiating team.
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THE PLACE: The Little Greek Deli occupies a fine old Reno home at the corner West Fifth and Washington streets. I've driven past it scores upon ...
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JPMorgan Asset Management on Monday saw a 50 per cent chance of “some form” of Greek sovereign default. Stephanie Flanders, chief market ...
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BANGOR, Maine — A former priest at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison with all but 6½ years ...
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke with senior European officials about speeding up talks over a new bailout deal, after some eurozone ...
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BOSTON, MA – Beneath partly-cloudy skies in Boston, the 21st annual New England Greek Parade was held on April 26. Just like the start of the New York Parade in New York on March 29, a not-widely-reported incident occupied the attention of the police department. The police cordoned off the area in front of the […] The post Sun Battles Clouds, Greeks Totally Shine at Boston Parade appeared first on The National Herald.
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ATHENS -- Three months of negotiations between the Greek government and our European and international partners have brought about much convergence on the steps needed to overcome years of economic crisis and to bring about sustained recovery in Greece. But they have not yet produced a deal. Why? What steps are needed to produce a viable, mutually agreed reform agenda? We and our partners already agree on much. Greece's tax system needs to be revamped, and the revenue authorities must be freed from political and corporate influence. The pension system is ailing. The economy's credit circuits are broken. The labor market has been devastated by the crisis and is deeply segmented, with productivity growth stalled. Public administration is in urgent need of modernization, and public resources must be used more efficiently. Overwhelming obstacles block the formation of new companies. Competition in product markets is far too circumscribed. And inequality has reached outrageous levels, preventing society from uniting behind essential reforms. This consensus aside, agreement on a new development model for Greece requires overcoming two hurdles. First, we must concur on how to approach Greece's fiscal consolidation. Second, we need a comprehensive, commonly agreed reform agenda that will underpin that consolidation path and inspire the confidence of Greek society. Beginning with fiscal consolidation, the issue at hand concerns the method. The "troika" institutions (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) have, over the years, relied on a process of backward induction: They set a date (say, the year 2020) and a target for the ratio of nominal debt to national income (say, 120 percent) that must be achieved before money markets are deemed ready to lend to Greece at reasonable rates. Then, under arbitrary assumptions regarding growth rates, inflation, privatization receipts, and so forth, they compute what primary surpluses are necessary in every year, working backward to the present. The result of this method, in our government's opinion, is an "austerity trap." When fiscal consolidation turns on a predetermined debt ratio to be achieved at a predetermined point in the future, the primary surpluses needed to hit those targets are such that the effect on the private sector undermines the assumed growth rates and thus derails the planned fiscal path. Indeed, this is precisely why previous fiscal-consolidation plans for Greece missed their targets so spectacularly. Our government's position is that backward induction should be ditched. Instead, we should map out a forward-looking plan based on reasonable assumptions about the primary surpluses consistent with the rates of output growth, net investment, and export expansion that can stabilize Greece's economy and debt ratio. If this means that the debt-to-GDP ratio will be higher than 120 percent in 2020, we devise smart ways to rationalize, re-profile, or restructure the debt - keeping in mind the aim of maximizing the effective present value that will be returned to Greece's creditors. Besides convincing the troika that our debt sustainability analysis should avoid the austerity trap, we must overcome the second hurdle: the "reform trap." The previous reform program, which our partners are so adamant should not be "rolled back" by our government, was founded on internal devaluation, wage and pension cuts, loss of labor protections, and price-maximizing privatization of public assets. Our partners believe that, given time, this agenda will work. If wages fall further, employment will rise. The way to cure an ailing pension system is to cut pensions. And privatizations should aim at higher sale prices to pay off debt that many (privately) agree is unsustainable. By contrast, our government believes that this program has failed, leaving the population weary of reform. The best evidence of this failure is that, despite a huge drop in wages and costs, export growth has been flat (the elimination of the current-account deficit being due exclusively to the collapse of imports). Additional wage cuts will not help export-oriented companies, which are mired in a credit crunch. And further cuts in pensions will not address the true causes of the pension system's troubles (low employment and vast undeclared labor). Such measures will merely cause further damage to Greece's already-stressed social fabric, rendering it incapable of providing the support that our reform agenda desperately needs. The current disagreements with our partners are not unbridgeable. Our government is eager to rationalize the pension system (for example, by limiting early retirement), proceed with partial privatization of public assets, address the non-performing loans that are clogging the economy's credit circuits, create a fully independent tax commission, and boost entrepreneurship. The differences that remain concern how we understand the relationships between the various reforms and the macro environment. None of this means that common ground cannot be achieved immediately. The Greek government wants a fiscal-consolidation path that makes sense, and we want reforms that all sides believe are important. Our task is to convince our partners that our undertakings are strategic, rather than tactical, and that our logic is sound. Their task is to let go of an approach that has failed. © Project Syndicate -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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