Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-03-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] Simitis briefs Stephanopoulos on Barcelona summit

[02] OEK to spend Dr 56.5 bln in Olympic Village project in 2002

[03] Greece to further reduce stakes in National Bank, Commercial Bank

[04] Greece, Bulgaria to build regional Balkan energy market with EU's

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Wednesday

[06] Greek stocks end 1.10 percent down in ASE

[01] Simitis briefs Stephanopoulos on Barcelona summit

Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Tuesday briefed Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos over results at the weekend European Union summit in Barcelona, telling reporters afterwards that Greeces EU presidency in the first half of 2003 comes at a crucial point for the resolution of several economic and social issues in the 15-member Union.

Simitis also reiterated that the EUs expansion will proceed this year, with specific accession agreements expected to be signed during the Greek presidencys tenure.

Finally, he again voiced his support for a Europe that emphasises social policy rather than only a ?market-oriented? Europe.

[02] OEK to spend Dr 56.5 bln in Olympic Village project in 2002

The Workers' Housing Organisation (OEK)on Tuesday announced that it would spend 56.5 billion drachmas this year for the construction of the Olympic Village site and another 44.5 billion drachmas for building 3,390 new houses to be auctioned with its members.

Deputy Labour and Social Affairs Minister Lefteris Tziollas, presenting OEK's new programmes, said that the organisation also planned to subsidise house rentals with a total 14 billion drachmas and to extend a housing loans programme in which OEK subsidised interest rates by 27 to 66 percent.

[03] Greece to further reduce stakes in National Bank, Commercial Bank

Economy and Finance Minister Nikos Christodoulakis on Monday announced that the government was planning to further reduce its stakes in National Bank and Commercial Bank, to transform Post Savings Bank into a societe anonyme leading to its flotation this year, speedier procedures to privatise Agricultural Bank of Greece and a final sale of a 57.8 percent equity stake in ETBAbank to Piraeus Bank.

Addressing a general assembly of Greek Banks' Union, Christodoulakis reiterated his decision not to seek a new adjustment solution to a problem with overdue penalty rates and urged Greek banks for a swift end of all such cases with customers.

He called on commercial banks to offer more financing opportunities to small- and medium-sized enterprises and to design modern investment products to satisfy the demands of small depositors in the wake of a sharp fall in interest rates.

Christodoulakis noted that the Greek economy's performance in the last few years was ''hard to find'', although he acknowledged there were significant and unjustified delays.

Theodore Karatzas, the union's chairman, told the assembly that Greek banks needed to acquire the minimum of all common characteristics of financial institutions operating in European and international level.

[04] Greece, Bulgaria to build regional Balkan energy market with EU's support

SOFIA (ANA - B. Borisov) - ''Greece and Bulgaria will cooperate to built the European Union's regional energy market in the Balkans,'' Greek Development Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos said here on Tuesday.

Following a meeting with Bulgaria's Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Konstantin Paskalev in Sofia, Tsohatzopoulos also said that ''we had very constructive cooperation. We worked well. We agreed on two major issues.''

''We agreed on a common model with the minister based on which three countries, Greece, Bulgaria and Russia, will participate. A model of state agreement and cooperation on a common equal basis, which will formulate the preconditions so as to base a cooperation of oil and construction firms which will undertake the corresponding correlation of participation, on which we will agree, the execution of the project,'' Tsohatzopoulos said.

According to the minister, the two countries will cooperate both in the electric energy market sector, where the European Union will support efforts for the restructuring of grids.

The speeding up of the course of the Burgas-Alexandroupoli oil-pipeline was the major issue on the two ministers' agenda.

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Wednesday

Mostly sunny weather is forecast in Greece on Wednesday with scattered cloud in northern parts of the country, with a possibility of light showers later in the day. The morning will be misty. Winds north-northwesterly, light, turning strong in the Aegean from the evening. In the north, temperatures will range from 5C to 16C; on the rest of the mainland from 9C to 19C; and in the islands from 10C to 18C. Sunshine in Athens with temperatures between 7C and 18C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 7C to 15C.

[06] Greek stocks end 1.10 percent down in ASE

Equity prices ended Tuesday's session sharply lower on the Athens Stock Exchange with very thin trading conditions exaccerbating price moves in the market.

The general index fell 1.10 percent to 2,358.08 points, with turnover a low 104.3 million euros.

Only the Telecommunications sector scored gains (+0.02 percent), while the Holding, Banks, IT Solutions and Retail sectors suffering the heaviest percentage losses (3.40 percent, 2.02 percent, 1.78 percent and 1.43 percent).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 1.44 percent lower, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 1.33 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index eased 0.82 percent.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 239 to 72 with another 43 issues unchanged.

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