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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-19Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] PM and Angela Merkel discussed conclusion of Greek review on the phone, sources sayGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the progress in negotiations to conclude the first review of the Greek programme during a telephone call held on Tuesday, Greek government sources revealed.They said the prime minister relayed Greece's positions concerning the better-than-expected performance of the Greek economy that Eurostat is expected on announce on Thursday, noting that this must be taken into account in the final outcome of the review. [02] Demand for business loans remained low in Q1, BoG reportDemand for bank loans by enterprises remained low in the first quarter of 2016, despite positive estimates made in the previous quarter, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday. The central bank, however, maintained its optimism of a slight rebound in demand during the second quarter of the year.In the first quarter of 2016, credit standards for loans to non-financial corporations (NFCs) remained broadly unchanged compared with the fourth quarter of 2015, in line with expectations expressed in the previous survey round. Banks expect that credit standards will remain unchanged in the second quarter of 2016, the central bank said its quarterly report, adding thatt the terms and conditions for loans to NFCs remained also unchanged in the first quarter of 2016. The demand for loans by NFCs remained broadly unchanged in the first quarter of 2016, despite a small increase in the demand for loans by SMEs. In the previous survey, banks had expressed positive expectations regarding the demand for loans, which however did not materialise. The demand for corporate loans was expected to improve slightly in the second quarter of 2016. In the first quarter of 2016, credit standards for loans to households were essentially unchanged compared with the fourth quarter of 2015, in line with expectations expressed in the previous survey round. As regards the expectations for the second quarter of 2016, credit standards for all loans to households are expected to remain unchanged. The terms and conditions for loans to households remained also unchanged in the first quarter of 2016. The demand for housing loans increased somewhat in the first quarter of 2016, in line with expectations expressed in the previous survey round, whilst for consumer credit, the demand remained broadly unchanged. The demand for loans to households was expected to remain unchanged in the second quarter of 2016. [03] End of double name transliterations in IDs and passportsThe interior and administrative reconstruction ministry decided to abolish the double writing of Greek names or surnames in Latin characters in identity cards and passports and to impose a single transliteration to avoid confusion.The decision follows the opinion of the Greek ombudsman who noted that the mandatory writing of full names in Latin characters creates identification problems to people whose data have been transliterated differently in another system. For example, in some cases full names were written in two different ways with the English disjunctive "OR" separating them. With the new rules transliteration will follow the new protocol, unless the document holder requests his or her name to be registered according to an existing travel or other document, which he or she must demonstrate. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |