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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Three-day debate on vote of confidence opens in Parliament

[02] Greece is prepared to face Ebola virus case, Health Minister says

[03] Greek unemployment rate eased to 26.4 pct in July

[01] Three-day debate on vote of confidence opens in Parliament

Debate opened with New Democracy (ND) rapporteur Makis Voridis, followed by the rapporteurs of the other parliamentary groups.

Yiannis Dragassakis is the main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) rapporteur, the rapporteur for PASOK is Panagiotis Rigas, for the Independent Greeks (ANEL) Elena Kountoura, for the Communist Party Greece (KKE) Nikos Karathanassopoulos and for Golden Dawn (GD) Artemis Mattheopoulos. The independent MPs will also be represented by a rapporteur.

On Wednesday evening, Parliament will be addressed by Cabinet members, including Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou and Deputy Transport Minister Michalis Papadopoulos.

The debate will continue on Thursday and will be completed on Friday at midnight with a roll-call vote.

[02] Greece is prepared to face Ebola virus case, Health Minister says

"We have complied with the World Health Organisation's directives," Voridis said. On the precautionary reasons taken, he said they were "travel directives existing in all exit and entrance points of the country and special directives exist for people coming from countries of high risk."

On the way the government will react to an Ebola case he noted: "We have chosen a reference hospital if a suspicious incident occurs...A specific building with special staff, equipment and laboratory has been chosen that will be able to make the analysis needed in order to identify whether it is Ebola virus."

Voridis, however, did not reveal the specific hospital adding that an announcement will be made in the following period.

[03] Greek unemployment rate eased to 26.4 pct in July

This improved figure, however, did not cover the country's structural problems in the labor market, as a more than expected increase in tourism was not accompanied by a similar reduction in unemployment, one in two young people -aged up to 24 years old- and more than three in 10 aged 25-34 remained unemployed, while a decline in the unemployment rate did not cover the entire country with two regions recording rising unemployment.

The statistics service said that the number of unemployed people fell by 69,413 in July compared with July 2013 (a decline of 5.1 pct) and by 12,212 compared with June 2014 (a decline of 0.9 pct). The number of employed people totaled 3,581,832, up 2.1 pct from July last year and up 1.0 pct from June 2014.

The financially non-active part of the population totaled 3,268,994, down 1.6 pct from July 2013 and down 0.8 pct from June 2014.

The unemployment rate among women was 30.5 pct in July from 31.6 pct in July last year, while among men it fell to 23.1 pct from 24.9 pct, respectively.

Unemployment in the 15-24 age group was 50.7 pct in July from 58.2 pct last year, in the 25-34 age group it fell to 35.4 pct from 36.1 pct, in the 35-44 age group it fell to 22.3 pct from 24.3 pct, in the 45-54 age group it eased to 20.4 pct from 20.9 pct, in the 55-64 age group it rose to 17.2 pct from 15 pct and in the 65-74 age group it was unchanged at 9.5 pct.

Among the country's regions, Macedonia-Thrace (27 pct), Epirus-Western Macedonia (27 pct) and Attica (26.6 pct) recorded the highest unemployment rates, followed by Thessaly-Central Greece (26.5 pct), Peloponese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (26.4 pct), Crete (23.7 pct) and the Aegean (19.4 pct).

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