Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-04-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] Karatzas-Athens bourse

[02] Central Bank-Intervention rates cut

[03] Earthquake

[01] Karatzas-Athens bourse

Chairman of the Association of Greek Banks and governor of the National Bank of Greece Theodore Karatzas on Wednesday predicted an 'exceptional' future for the Greek capital market, despite the recent downward fluctuations on the Athens Stock Exchange, which he called "unjustified".

[02] Central Bank-Intervention rates cut

The Bank of Greece on Wednesday slashed its key intervention rates by between 0.50 and 0.75 basis points, bringing short-term rates closer to their EU equivalents. After a meeting of its Monetary Policy Council, the central bank announced a 0.50 percentage point reduction in the weekly intervention rate for two-week funds to 8.75 percent, the primary overnight lending rate by 0.75 percentage point to 8.0 percent, and the secondary overnight rate by 0.50 percentage point 7.5 percent. It also reduced the Lombard rate by 0.75 percentage point to 9.50 percent.

[03] Earthquake

A strong earthquake measuring 5.00 degrees on the Richter scale hit the bay of Corinth early Wednesday causing some panic among local inhabitants and police said so far there were no reports of damage or injuries.

The tremor, which spread as far as the central Greek port city of Patras and the region of Achaia, was also felt in Athens.

According to the Athens observatory, the quake was recorded at 05.23 local time and came from a distance of 150 kilometres west of Athens. Its epicentre was the bay of Corinth and the nearby town of Aegion waking up residents in the region.

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