Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-09-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] EFG Eurobank Ergasias completes private placement of shares

[02] Wholesale turnover index down 15.3% in Q2

[03] Eurobarometer on employment, economy, environment

[04] Unemployment at 8.6% in June

[01] EFG Eurobank Ergasias completes private placement of shares

The bank said the private placement of its share was fully guaranteed by Goldman Sachs, the underwriter of the issue which was fully covered by international institutional investors.

[02] Wholesale turnover index down 15.3% in Q2

The statistical service said the whole sale turnover index rose 9.0 pct in the second quarter from the first quarter of 2009, after an increase of 17.1 pct in the corresponding period last year.

[03] Eurobarometer on employment, economy, environment

People in Greece describe the situation as "bad", 94 pct, while equally disgruntled appear to be all Europeans with 85 pct of them expressing disappointment. Worth noting is the fact that 9 in 10 Greeks believe that it is "hard to find a good job in Greece even if someone is highly qualified", (Greece 91 pct, EU 80 pct).

The Greeks are more disappointed compared to the rest Europeans by the bad state of the environment in their country (Greece 84 pct, EU 52 pct).

According to the Eurobarometer, the people in Spain (81 pct), Portugal (81 pct), Ireland (79 pct), Italy (78 pct) and Greece (78 pct) are the most disappointed by the course of the European economy. However, 56 pct of the Greeks, compared to 49 pct in the EU, stated that they "feel greater economic stability because Greece is a Euro-zone member."

Also, people in Greece believe that economy (48 pct) and employment (52 pct) will deteriorate in the next 12 months. Moreover, a considerable portion of the Greeks (41 pct), compared to 36 pct in the EU, predict stagnation in the sector of the economy (Greece 41 pct, EU 36 pct) and in employment (Greece 39 pct, EU 32 pct).

In addition, 56 pct of the Greeks express discontent as regards their daily lives compared to 22 pct in the EU.

It is worth noting that both the Greeks and the Europeans express confidence in the EU as according to the poll, they believe that it has adequate power and means to protect its economic interests in the global economy (Greece 72 pct, EU 66 pct).

The EU is also regarded as more efficient to deal with the economic crisis (Greece 38 pct, EU 21 pct) compared to the International Monetary Fund (Greece 19 pct, EU 14 pct), the United States (Greece 12 pct, EU 16 pct), the G20 (Greece 11 pct, EU 20 pct), or individual state governments in the EU (Greece 8 pct, EU 12 pct).

[04] Unemployment at 8.6% in June

The statistics service, in a report, said the number of unemployed people totaled 427,707 in June 2009, from 359,978 in June 2008 and 403,365 in June 2007. Epirus (11.5 pct), eastern Macedonia-Thrace (11.6 pct), western Greece (10.5 pct) and western Macedonia (9.8 pct) recorded the highest unemployment percentage rates, while northern Aegean (4.5 pct), southern Aegean (4.9 pct) and Crete (5.9 pct) the lowest unemployment rates.

Unemployment among women totaled 12.4 pct, sharply up compared with a 5.8 pct rate among men. The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (22.9 pct), up from 22.3 pct in June 2008 and 21.3 pct in June 2007.

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