Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-03-15

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

CONTENTS

[01] FinMin: Investors eye privatisations

[02] ND on Eurogroup decisions

[03] TI: Corruption hit by crisis

[04] Stocks end sharply lower 

[01] FinMin: Investors eye privatisations

Speaking to the ANA-MPA on the sidelines of an ECOFIN council here, Papaconstantinou clarified that investors' interest has to do with state enterprises as well as the public real estate.

Asked about the sustainability of the Greek debt, Papaconstantinou noted that "we have always believed that the Greek debt is fully sustainable. European decisions help the sustainability and also bring relief to the markets, which have expressed some doubt about whether the actual repayment schedule and the cost of servicing the debt are too high. Both the extension of the maturities and the lowering of the interest rates are in the right direction". (ANA-MPA)

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[02] ND on Eurogroup decisions

ND spokesman Yiannis Mihelakis called on the government to reveal the commitments, as he said, that it has undertaken in last Friday's EU summit meeting as regards the adoption of new economic measures, stressing that "we want to know if there are any new terms and commitments for new measures".

Mihelakis also stressed that ND leader Antonis Samaras had referred long ago to the decisions on the extension of the debt repayment period and the interest rate reduction adding that the extension decision was made by the Eurogroup in November.

Commenting on Ireland's stance in Brussels, the ND spokesman stated that Dublin opted for economic growth instead of raising taxation on investments, while at the same time he pointed out that Portugal chose to borrow with high interest rates instead of having recourse to the support mechanism. "They did it to salvage economic growth whereas the ruling PASOK government has taken a divorce from economic growth," he stressed.

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[03] TI: Corruption hit by crisis

This was revealed in a survey released by Transparency International Greece on Tuesday, which showed a decline in both the number of households reporting incidents of corruption (from 13.4 percent in 2009 to 10.4 percent in 2010) and in the total estimated sums involved (632 million euro in 2010, from 787 million euro in 2009). Overall, corruption was estimated to have cost Greece 155 million euros less in 2010 than in 2009.

As in previous years, hospitals remained the undisputed corruption 'champions', while tax offices outstripped town planning bureaus (which issue building permits) for second place, following a significant slump in building activity and measures to 'legalise' unlawful building conversions. (ANA-MPA)

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[04] Stocks end sharply lower

The Big Cap index plunged 4.49 pct, the Mid Cap index fell 3.92 pct and the Small Cap index ended 3.43 pct lower. All blue chip stocks ended lower with Alpha Bank (6.29 pct), Cyprus Bank (6.08 pct), Eurobank (5.64 pct), Ellaktor (5.42 pct) and Piraeus Bank (5.03 pct) suffering the heaviest percentage losses.

All sectors ended lower with the Commerce (6.34 pct), Banks (5.29 pct) and Food (4.80 pct) suffering heavily. Broadly, decliners led advancers by 143 to 38 with another 35 issues unchanged. Attica Publications (19.05 pct), Neorio (19.05 pct), Unibios (14.29 pct) and Mathios (12.86 pct) were top gainers, while Nakas (16.49 pct), Allatini Ceramics (12.9 pct) and Alpha Trust (10 pct) were top losers.

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