Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-08-31

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

CONTENTS

[01] Thessaloniki - Council of Hellenes Abroad - meetings

[02] Greece - Guided missiles - Order

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[04] Weather Forecast-Friday

[05] ASE-close

[06] Greece-monetary policy

[07] Athens Water-1st half results

[08] Alpha Bank-Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena

[09] Greece-labour-report

[01] Thessaloniki - Council of Hellenes Abroad - meetings

The presidency of the Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE), chaired by Andrew Athens, convened in Thessaloniki on Thursday in the presence of Deputy Foreign Minister Aggeliki Laiou, in charge of expatriate affairs. The members will meet for three days at the Council's newly acquired offices, which will be officially inaugurated on Saturday.

Thursday's session was devoted to organisational matters, while the agenda for Friday includes such issues as a programme for medical care in the former Soviet repuclics, training programmes for young ethnic Greeks and forums for youth, women, culture etc.

The medical care programme concerns ethnic Greeks in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Albania, where 100 million dollars will be spent on setting up 20 medical centres in these countries.

Three centres already operate in Georgia, the Ukraine and Armenia and provide free treatment to both ethnic Greeks but other citizens of those countries. In Georgia, in particular, several dozen operations for heart problems have been carried out.

Also sitting in on the meetings is the chairman of the parliamentary committee for overseas Greeks, Grigoris Niotis, a number of MPs, Overseas Greeks General Secretary Dimitris Dolis and others. Thursday's meeting was also attended by Macedonia-Thrace Minister George Pashalidis.

[02] Greece - Guided missiles - Order

Greece on Thursday signed a 21-billion-drachma deal with French defence contractor Aerospatiale Matra for the acquisition three artillery fire control systems as well as 27 guided missiles for three new naval craft.

Delivery of the Exocet MM40 (Block 2) missiles will begin in December 2001 and conclude in latter part of 2004, in line with a building schedule for the three missile patrol boats at a local shipyard west of Athens.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Indicative rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Fridays rates (buying)

Euro 334.979

U.S. dollar 374.272

German mark 171.272

French franc 051.067

Pound sterling 544.727

Irish punt 425.335

Belgian franc 008.304

Luxembourg franc 008.304

Dutch guilder 152.007

Italian lira (100) 017.300

Austrian schilling 024.344

Danish kroner 044.961

Swedish kroner 039.811

Finnish mark 056.340

Spanish peseta 002.013

Portuguese escudo 001.671

Japanese yen (100) 351.535

Swiss franc 216.162

Norwegian kroner 041.468

Cyprus pound 586.292

Canadian dollar 253.198

Australian dollar 215.735

[04] Weather Forecast-Friday

Light cloud is forecast throughout the country on Friday, turning to showers or storms in the west and in Macedonia. Early morning mist is expected in some areas.

[05] ASE-close

Greek investors breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday when stock prices rebounded strongly reversing a free-fall in the previous six sessions on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Dealers, however, remained cautious over the market's trend reminding of short-lived rebounds in the past.

Turnover exceeded the 100 billion drachmas level, a sign that liquidity may be improving. Buying interest focused on smaller capitalisation stocks creating a general upward trend which steadily expanded in blue chip stocks.

The general index ended 3.72 percent higher at 3,557.15 points, recouping part of a 8.75 percent loss in the previous six sessions. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks jumped 3.80 percent to 2,010.09 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index soared 5.05 percent to 489 points. Turnover was an improved 103.9 billion drachmas.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 614.05 points, up 7.40 percent.

[06] Greece-monetary policy

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas on Thursday said that Prime Minister Costas Simitis discussed monetary policy issues with Bank of Greece governor Lucas Papademos on Wednesday.

"The result of this conversation was that monetary policy should be eased cautiously as it will have both positive and negative results. It will rekindled investment interest but if interest rates were rapidly lowered there was a risk of overheating in the economy," Reppas said.

[07] Athens Water-1st half results

Athens Water on Thursday reported a 7.8 percent rise in its 1st half turnover to 38.2 billion drachmas from 35.4 billion in the same period last year.

The listed company also announced a 17 percent fall in sales cost to 26.7 billion drachmas over the same period, reflecting lower amortisation.

Pre-tax profits jumped 101 percent in the January-June period to 13.3 billion drachmas, frmo 6.6 billion the same period in 1999.

[08] Alpha Bank-Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena

Italian bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena signed a deal with Alpha Bank on Tuesday to buy a 5.0 percent equity stake in Alpha Bank Romania.

The equity participation will be accomplised through a capital increase in Alpha Bank Romania.

Alpha Bank Group is the largest private financial group in Greece with an expanding presence in southeastern Europe and Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena, which was established in 1472, is the oldest bank in the world and one of the major banking groups in Italy.

Both institutions will benefin from the relationship. Alpha Bank having an strong presence in the Romanian market and Banca Monte Dei Paschi di Siena providing a powerful link with the important Italian business community.

Alpha Bank holds a 85 percent equity stake in Alpha Bank Romania, with the remaining 10 percent owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Develoment.

Alpha Bank Romania reported net profits of 6 million US dollars last year and its workfoce totals 325. The bank plans to open five new branches in the country by the end of 2001.

[09] Greece-labour-report

Greece's unemployment rate is expected to rise slightly this year to a total of 11.9 percent from 11.7 pct in 1999, but could fall to 7.5 percent by the end of 2004, the Labour Institute of GSEE - Greece's largest union umbrella - said in its annual report on Thursday.

Savvas Robolis, a professor at the Panteion University of Athens, presenting GSEE's report in Thessaloniki said he expected the unemployment rate to rise to 11.9 percent this year but presented a model to combat unemployment which could contain the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent over the next four years.

"Increasing competitiveness and combatting unemployment is not achieved through lowering labour cost, deregulating the labour market, industrial relations and the social welfare, but through increasing productivity and upgrading quality in production procedures," GSEE's report said.

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