Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-09-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] European Parliament Vice President Papadimoulis: Greece on the verge of a new loan

[02] Greek inflation rate slowed to -0.3 pct in August‏

[01] European Parliament Vice President Papadimoulis: Greece on the verge of a new loan

"The only thing the government and Greece's lenders are interested in is to change package, not calling it a memorandum but with another word and to change the form of the troika. The supervision, however, will remain, possibly without IMF's participation," he noted.

Asked on when he believes the discussion, on a political level, on the sustainability of the Greek public debt will start, Papadimoulis noted: "The responsible Commissioner, Mr. Katainen, replying to my question on the issue, set the total compliance with the conditions of the memorandum as a necessary prerequisite to start the discussion in order for the possible measures for the Greek public debt relief to be examined. This constitutes another resounding refutation of the government's claims on the alleged end of the memorandum and another proof that the European Commission insists on the neoliberal Taliban's line".

Papadimoulis expressed the opinion that "(German Chancellor Angela) Merkel's dogma should be abandoned because not only it leads the Greek economy and society to a catastrophic course, but it has also led the eurozone on the verge of a new cycle of recession with very serious deflation risks."

Referring to ENFIA (Uniform Real Estate Ownership Tax) amendment tabled in parliament by the government, Papadimoulis noted: "We have a government that with ENFIA charges in 2014 four billion euros tax on real estate property, in a practically dead real estate market with devastated commercial values. This is double the tax compared to the average applied in the eurozone; a lot higher than the 2 percent of Greece's current GDP, when the average real estate tax in the Eurozone is below 1 percent of GDP. SYRIZA (main opposition) as government will cancel ENFIA and replace it with a European-model property tax with high tax free and gradual taxation in order for large property owners to pay more".

The Europarliament Vice President estimated that "SYRIZA's clear victory in the euroelections and the increasing SYRIZA lead in all the opinion polls offers with relative certainty the prospect of a great victory for SYRIZA in the imminent general elections...And this is something that not only the duo of (Prime Minister Antonis) Samaras - (Government Vice President Evangelos) Venizelos, the duo of failure, but also the international establishment do not want to happen".

The full interview is available for subscribers at the ANA-MPA website.

[02] Greek inflation rate slowed to -0.3 pct in August‏

Hellenic Statistical Authority, in a report released on Wednesday, said that on a monthly basis, price increases were recorded in pharmaceuticals (4.2 pct), fresh fish (1.5 pct), meat (0.8 pct) and vehicles (0.6 pct), while on the other hand, price declines were recorded in fresh vegetables (6.7 pct), fresh fruit (4.3 pct) and petrol (1.6 pct), while the inflation rate was also affected by the summer sales season.

On an annual basis, price increases were recorded in pharmaceuticals (26.7 pct), PPC rates (4.9 pct), olive oil (2.9 pct), dairy/eggs (2.5 pct), hotels (2.5 pct), cigarettes (1.8 pct) and alcohol (1.4 pct), while price declines were recorded in fresh potatoes (32.7 pct), fresh fruit (16.9 pct), fresh fish 5.5 pct), vegetables (3.6 pct) and meat (0.9 pct).

The statistics service said the consumer price index fell 0.3 pct in August, compared with the same month last year, after an 1.3 pct decline recorded in the 2013-2014 period. The statistics service attributed this development to a 2.4 pct decline i food/beverage prices, an 1.3 pct fall in clothing/footwear, an 1.3 pct decline in housing, a 0.5 pct fall in transport prices, a 2.5 pct decline in entertainment prices, a 3.9 pct fall in education, a 0.4 pct decline in hotel/restaurant prices and a 2.6 pct fall in other goods and services. On the other hand, alcohol/tobacco prices rose 1.9 pct, health prices were up 3.5 pct and communications rose 0.1 pct.

Greece's harmonized inflation rate was -0.2 pct in August, from -0.8 pct in July and -1.0 pct in August 2013.

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