Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-06-05

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek unemployment rate eased to 26.8 pct in March

[02] National Bank to distribute 3.0 bln euros to real economy in 2014

[01] Greek unemployment rate eased to 26.8 pct in March

The Hellenic Statistical Authority, in a report, said the March figures were based on the results of a new census made in 2011 and that figures were not fully comparable with previous months.

The number of unemployed people fell by 29,420 compared with March 2013, a decline of 2.3 pct and by 1,466 compared with February 2014, a decline of 0.1 pct. The number of employed people totaled 3,482,345 in March, down 0.3 pct from March 2013 and up 0.3 pct from February 2014.

The financially non-active population totaled 3,393,042. The unemployment rate among women was 30.6 pct in March, from 30.8 pct in March last year, while the unemployment rate among men eased to 23.8 pct from 24.4 pct, respectively.

The 15-24 age group recorded the highest unemployment rate (58.3 pct in March from 59.7 pct in March 2013), followed by the 25-34 age group (35.5 pct), 35-44 age group (24.1 pct), 45-54 age group (20.7 pct), 55-64 age group (17.4 pct) and the 65-74 age group (14.8 pct).

Epirus-Western Macedonia (29.0 pct from 29.5 pct last year) recorded the highest unemployment rate among the country's regions followed by Macedonia-Thrace (27.7 pct from 28.5 pct), Attica (27.6 pct from 28.7 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (26.6 pct from 26.4 pct), the Peloponese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (25.7 pct from 23.2 pct), Crete (25.7 pct from 22.2 pct) and Aegean (20.6 pct from 22.8 pct).

[02] National Bank to distribute 3.0 bln euros to real economy in 2014

Speaking during a dinner, held on the occasion of the Posidonia fair in the presence of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, government vice-president Evangelos Venizelos and Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras and Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis and a large number of shipowners, Tourkolias stressed that Greek shipping was the biggest player in Europe, accounting for 46.7 pct of European fleet in dwt terms and remained at the top worldwide. "This means that Greek shipping not only should have a say, but support also in order to play a strong role in setting, European and even international maritime policy. We must avoid mistakes made in the past which pushed a number of business activities related with shipping, such as shipbuilding, outside Europe with obvious negative consequences," the Greek banker said.

Tourkolias said National Bank's shipping portfolio presented a low bad debt rate of only 6.0 pct of total portfolio, significantly lower compared with the average portfolio (domestic and international). "Recent successful share capital increase plans, with the help of your participation, laid the foundation to put National Bank among the most robust financial groups in the Eurozone, integrating even the most strict principles of Basel III. Private investors' participation in the bank's equity capital jumped to 43 pct from 16 pct, while seven foreign investors held an 1.0 pct equity stake each in the bank," Tourkolias said.

"National Bank is in a position to play the role it deserved in the Greek economy, distributing 3.0 billion euros in the Greek market this year," the Greek banker added.

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