Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-09-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Jean-Claude Juncker : Europe must change

[02] President Pavlopoulos discusses refugees issue with former Italian PM Amato

[03] First evaluation of the new programme to start in October, senior eurozone official says

[04] Greek inflation at -1.5 pct in August‏

[01] Jean-Claude Juncker : Europe must change

Addressing the Europarliament plenum, Juncker stressed "Europe must change and we must do it now. You must also honour the mandate you received from the European people."

He also announced the setting up of an urgent relocation mechanism for 120,000 additional refugees adding that the Schengen system will not be abolished during his term.

[02] President Pavlopoulos discusses refugees issue with former Italian PM Amato

Pavlopoulos referred to Amato's substantial role in Greece's effort to remain in the European Union. He also called Amato to mutually confront the major issue of refugees and migrants regarding the initiatives that Europe should undertake.

The president underlined that the root of the evil is the war in Syria adding that neither Europe nor the great powers of this world should remain impassive before this evil and reiterated his position for an extraordinary Summit on the migrants' issue.

On his part, Amato expressed his optimism over the confrontation of the crisis and the promotion of the value of solidarity among the EU country members on the migrants issue. He also said that the solidarity on the migration issue may find a way to reach the eurozone and to create a bridge of confidence between the EU countries of the north and the south and to make a better Europe.

[03] First evaluation of the new programme to start in October, senior eurozone official says

Apart from the technical issues of the evaluation, issues of political interest such as the IMF's role, measures for debt relief and the banks recapitalisation, will also be raised, he noted.

On the IMF role, he estimated that an agreement will probably be reached. Regarding the recapitalisation of the banks, he said that it will be discussed at the Eurogroup meeting next Saturday.

The official underlined that the repercussions of the capital controls on the Greek market were limited compared to other countries such as Iceland and Cyprus while he could not predict when they will be lifted.

Finally, he expressed his certainty that the new Greek government will respect the agreement adding that the terms of the memorandum are under constant negotiation and some of them may change.

[04] Greek inflation at -1.5 pct in August‏

The statistics service, in a monthly report, said that monthly price increases were recorded in bread/cereals (3.2 pct), meat (2.4 pct), dairy/eggs (0.5 pct), oil/fat (2.5 pct), fresh fruit (12.5 pct), fresh vegetables (4.5 pct), potatoes (2.7 pct), sugar/chocolate/ice cream (5.0 pct), other food (5.7 pct), coffee/tea (7.4 pct), hospital (6.1 pct), road transport (3.3 pct), restaurant (1.9 pct) and car insurance (0.7 pct). On the other hand, price declines were recorded in petrol (4.2 pct), air travel (7.1 pct), cinemas/theater (4.1 pct) and hotels (4.1 pct).

On an annual basis, price increases were recorded in bread/cereals (3.2 pct), meat (1.9 pct), dairy/eggs (0.4 pct), sugar/chocolate/ice cream (5.0 pct), fresh potatoes (19.5 pct), fresh fruit (19.3 pct), fresh vegetables (8.8 pct), other food (5.7 pct), coffee/tea (10 pct), cigarettes (3.1 pct), electricity (0.7 pct), hospital (6.1 pct), combined passenger transport (10.6 pct), road transport (6.1 pct), air travel (7.7 pct), sea transport (6.9 pct), restaurant (1.7 pct) and hotels (2.3 pct). On the other hand, price declines were recorded in bottled water/beverage (3 pct), clothing/footwear (6.8 pct), house rent (4.7 pct), heating oil (24 pct), natural gas (8.6 pct), textile products (10 pct), pharmaceuticals (6.2 pct), petrol (10.6 pct), theater (27.3 pct), newspaper/books (1.6 pct) and car insurance (11.8 pct).

The consumer price index fell 0.4 in August from July 2015, after an 1.2 pct decline recorded in the same period last year. Greece's harmonized inflation fell 0.4 pct in August, after an 1.3 pct decline in July and a 0.2 pct fall in August last year.

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