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Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-07-09
CONTENTS
[01] Barcelona Initiative summit in Paris
[02] Economy grows by 3.6% in Q1
[01] Barcelona Initiative summit in Paris
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, accompanied by Foreign Minister Dora
Bakoyannis and Deputy FM Yannis Valinakis, will attend the Barcelona
Initiative: Union for the Mediterranean summit meeting to be held in
Paris on July 13. The EU foreign ministers will hold a separate meeting
within the framework of the summit.
"The Union of the Mediterranean is an excellent opportunity promoting
growth in the region through the materialization of specific programmes
of developmental, economic and social dimension," foreign ministry
spokesman George Koumoutsakos told a regular press briefing on
Wednesday.
The French initiative has been backed by Greece from the beginning
through specific proposals.
Meanwhile, FM Bakoyannis will be present at the meeting between PM
Karamanlis and his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
scheduled for Thursday at noon at the government headquarters in
Athens.
Caption: Foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis. (ANA-MPA / M. Marogianni)
[02] Economy grows by 3.6% in Q1
The Greek economy grew by 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008,
compared with the corresponding period last year, Eurostat announced on
Wednesday. In its final estimates over economic growth rates in the
European Union, the EU executive's statistics agency said Eurozone's
economy grew by 2.1 percent in the January-March period, from 2.2
percent an initial forecast, while in the EU-27 economic growth also
slowed to 2.3 pct from 2.5 pct. Slovakia (8.7 pct) and Romania (8.2
pct) recorded the highest GDP growth rates in the first three months of
the year, while Italy (0.2 pct) and Estonia (0.4 pct) the lowest growth
rates.
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