Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-10-31

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 31/10/1997 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• PM confident drachma has weathered the storm
• Gov't to streamline state agencies
• Market jitters continue to affect bourse
• BoG intervenes to bolster drachma
• Greece desires friendly relations with all
• Bosnia to attend Balkan Summit
• Commission should put out feelers to all EU candidates
• Report alleges irregularities in Olympics 2004 bid
• Greek tourism shows signs of upturn
• Modernisation programme for post offices announced
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Prime Minister Costas Simitis predicted that recent external pressures on the drachma had evaporated although he did not rule out a repeat of such phenomena in the future, sources said.

Addressing a weekly cabinet meeting, Simitis told ministers that the country had experienced a shock and that is current going through the after- shocks.

He warned however that a new shock was not ruled out. Referring to the economy, the prime minister said that it showed stiff resistance but stressed that the economy needed further strengthening to win the drachma's battle against speculators.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said that the premier's comments were referring to the previous monetary crisis which hit the country in 1994 on the eve of a deadline to scrap restrictions on capital movement.

Reppas noted that the 1994 crisis ended shortly afterwards.

The recent monetary crisis was a totally different situation, government spokesman said, since there were no deadlines so future pressures could not be ruled out.

Reppas repeated that the government would defend the drachma and take all necessary initiatives to strengthen the national currency and the economy.

He stressed that the government would resist any effort by speculators to dictate new economic policies.

The government spokesman acknowledged that a rise in domestic interest rates was necessary but temporary and admitted that there would be side effects on the economy which would be dealt after the recent turmoil was over.

Gov't to streamline state agencies

The Greek government has approved a plan for the merger or the abolition of some of the public sector's organisations in an effort to rationalise and modernise state firms.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said a cabinet meeting endorsed a proposal by an economic committee.

The new measures did not foresee the abolition of public sector's organisations' activities, or threatened workers' status, Reppas said.

Workers would be transfered to other public sector enterprises after completion of all necessary legislative procedures.

A list of the organisations to be abolished or merged will be published later in the year.

Market jitters continue to affect bourse

Greek equities ended the week sharply lower reflecting market worries over a sharp rise in domestic interbank interest rates.

The general index lost 4.02 percent of its value to end at 1,488.53 points, its lowest since June 23, to show a total loss of 12.24 percent during the week.

The Athens Stock Exchange has fallen 14.25 percent since last Thursday when a crisis broke out in international stock markets.

The FTSE/ASE index ended 11.45 percent down during the four trading sessions of the week at 871.84 points.

Trading remained at extremely high levels and turnover was at 36.9 billion drachmas. On a weekly basis, turnover totalled 177.277 billion drachmas to a daily average of 44.3 billion.

All sector indices ended lower. Banks fell 3.55 percent, Insurance eased 3.95 percent, Leasing dropped 4.65 percent, Investment was 2.75 percent off, Construction fell 5.64 percent, Industrials eased 3.73 percent, Miscellaneous dropped 5.57 percent and Holding was 3.73 percent down.

The Miscellaneous and Construction sectors suffered the heaviest losses in the week at 15.74 and 15.71 percent respectively.

The parallel market index dropped 2.96 percent.

BoG intervenes to bolster drachma

The Bank of Greece intervened early in the session in the domestic interbank market pushing rates sharply higher to defend and the drachma and prevent any more outflow of capital.

As a result, tensions subsised in the Greek foreign exchange marrket with the drachma's parity strengthening against the Ecu.

The US dollar, however, ended 0.41 percent higher against the Greek currency reflecting a rebound in international markets.

Greece desires friendly relations with all

Greece said today that it desired conditions of calm and stability in the greater region in view of the country's efforts to consolidate peace and participate in economic and monetary union (EMU).

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas made the statement when asked to comment on recent remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz.

"They who do not have these targets, including possibly Turkey, seek tension," the spokesman added.

Reppas stressed that Greece desired friendly relations with all countries on an equal basis "and its policy is in complete harmony with international law".

"Problems arise when a country's policy goes contrary to these principles, as is the case with Turkey," he added.

Bosnia to attend Balkan Summit

Bosnia today informed the Greek government that it would be attending the two-day Balkan Summit which opens on Monday.

An announcement said Bosnia would be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikovil Malbasik.

Commission should put out feelers to all EU candidates

The Cabinet today reaffirmed its position that EU enlargement talks should in addition to Cyprus also include the other ten countries which have applied for EU membership.

According to a decision of the European Commission, negotiations on Cyprus' accession will begin on April 2 next year, while negotiations will also commence with a further five countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia - without any specific date having been set.

"Greece believes that in addition to these countries, negotiations should also begin with the other five countries, namely Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said after the Cabinet meeting.

The spokesman said Greece was not opposed to Turkey's efforts to come closer to Europe, provided the criteria set by the EU itself were satisfied.

Reppas said Greece did not support a French proposal for the establishment of a forum with the participation of the present EU member states, the eleven countries now seeking membership and Turkey, given that Athens wanted the eleven to become full members of the Union.

Despite this, he added, Greece would consider the possibility of a special relationship being developed between the EU and Turkey, while noting that the EU-Turkey customs association would proceed if an end was put to the Imia issue, which Ankara itself had created.

At this point, Reppas reiterated that Cyprus' course towards accession could not be obstructed by anyone and expressed the view that Cyprus' accession would serve as a "pressure lever" for the settlement of the Cyprus problem.

On the prospect of Greece joining EMU, Reppas said that if there were to be criteria of a political nature, Greece would seek to have equal treatment.

Report alleges irregularities in Olympics 2004 bid

Costas Sofoulis, the general director of the organisation which successfully bid for the 2004 Olympic Games, has charged the "Athens 2004" bid committee president, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki of mismanagement and conducting affairs with a lack of transparency.

Sofoulis, who was appointed general director of the organisation in January 1997, lists dozens of instances of mismanagement in an 18-page report submitted, among others, to Prime Minister Costas Simitis.

In the report, published in today's edition of the Athens daily "Eleftherotypia", Sofoulis names Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and the committee's deputy director, Yiannis Yiannakis, as being primarily responsible for the situation.

Charging that the mismanagement was on a systematic basis, Sofoulis cites instances of procurements and job contracts being given to relatives and friends of officials and employees of the bid committee.

Also cited are cases of administrative acts which were legalised on the basis of extracts from the minutes of the board of directors which were not signed.

Sofoulis also accuses Angelopoulos-Daskalaki of providing "cover" for employees who refused to comply with board decisions and charges a lack of transparency in all major categories of expenditures with regard to the choice of suppliers, while in the case of minor expenditures, only "makeshift" competitions were held.

Greek tourism shows signs of upturn

Greek tourism showed signs of recovery in January-September compared with the previous two years, the National Statistics Service (NSS) said on Wednesday.

Tourist overnight stays were 10.34 percent higher in April-September, according to figures based on a survey of 298 hotels throughout the country with a total of 88,472 beds.

The hotels surveyed were in Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu, Rhodes, Halkidiki and Crete and accounted for around 60 percent of hotels in those areas. Registered overnight stays in April-September totalled 12,550,517 from 11, 374,421 in the corresponding period last year. The sample of Greek hotels also reported an increase in occupancy rates to 79.43 percent from 71.98 percent last year. September was by far the best month of the period with 2, 300,088 overnight stays from 2,069,004 in 1996, an increase of 11.17 percent. Charter flights were also higher, with total passenger numbers rising by 7.1 percent in April-September.

Hellenic Tourism Organisation Secretary-General Nikos Skoulas, speaking at a press conference in Thessaloniki for the Philoxenia international tourism fair, said the results were encouraging but more efforts were needed to sustain the recovery trend. He said the main point was that prices had remained stable at last year's low levels.

Mr. Skoulas said that the organisation's target was to promote both quality and theme tourism in Greece following successful examples set by Italy and Spain.

Modernisation programme for post offices announced

A restructuring and modernisation programme for the Greek Post Offices (ELTA) was announced yesterday by Transport and Communications Minister Tassos Mantelis.

The process, according to the minister, will be completed in three stages: the first relates to the required institutional changes, which should have been made by the end of the year; the second includes reorganisation of services, decentralisation and selection of a development consultant. Finally, the third stage - of an eight-month duration - comprises a programme for the improvement of quality and an increase in productivity. He said productivity will improve by the opening of 30 new post offices in Attica and the introduction of new technology in a number of services.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article