Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-02-07

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

CONTENTS

[01] We are seeking a socially viable agreement, gov't spokesman Tzanakopoulos says

[02] SYRIZA's political secretariat to convene on Tuesday

[03] Greek trade deficit up 4.5 pct in 2016

[04] Composer and singer Loukianos Kilaidonis dies

[05] We are closely monitoring the seismic activity in Lesvos. Greece not in danger, says professor Lekkas

[01] We are seeking a socially viable agreement, gov't spokesman Tzanakopoulos says

"We are seeking a socially viable agreement without retreating to the IMF's absurd demands," he added

[02] SYRIZA's political secretariat to convene on Tuesday

[03] Greek trade deficit up 4.5 pct in 2016

The statistics service, in a report, said that the country's trade deficit grew 4.5 pct on average in 2016 as import grew slightly and exports fell in the year.

The value of import-arrivals totaled 3,868 billion euros in December, up 3.7 pct from the same month in 2015 (excluding oil products, the value of imports grew 1.2 pct). The value of export-deliveries totaled 2.301 billion euros in December, up 3.0 pct from the same month in 2015 (excluding oil products, the value of exports fell 5.0 pct).

The country's trade deficit amounted to 1.566 billion euros in December, up 4.8 pct from December 2015 (excluding oil products the trade deficit jumped 11 pct).

In the January-December 2016 period, the value of imports totaled 43,963 billion euros, up 0.8 pct from the previous year (excluding oil products imports grew 5.9 pct). The value of exports totaled 25.411 billion euros in 2016, down 1.8 pct from the previous year (excluding oil products exports grew 1.2 pct).

The country's trade deficit amounted to 18.551 billion euros in 2016, from 17.745 billion in 2015, an increase of 4.5 pct (excluding oil products the trade deficit grew 11.8 pct).

[04] Composer and singer Loukianos Kilaidonis dies

Kilaidonis was hospitalised with severe health problems.

Loukianos Kilaidonis was born in Athens and studied Architecture in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Athens Metsovio Polytechnic. However, he never worked as an architect but focused on music.

His career started in early 70s when he wrote the music score for the play "I poli mas".

He wrote music for the theatre and the cinema as well as for popular singers. He sang for the first time his own songs in 1973 in the period of the Greek junta. This LP, which was illegal, was a landmark in Kilaidonis' carreer and inspired a whole generation.

Kilaidonis was an artist that loved to play live. In 1983 he organised "the party in Vouliagmeni" the so-called Greek Woodstock in which gathered over 70,000 people.

He was married with Greek actress and member of parliament Anna Vagena and had two daughters.

[05] We are closely monitoring the seismic activity in Lesvos. Greece not in danger, says professor Lekkas

Three moderate quakes and tens of light tremors with epicentre the northwestern part of Lesvos in the Turkish waters have been recorded in the last 24h. We have an important seismic activity which is not linked with Anatolia fault but it is related with other smaller faults in the wider region, said Lekkas.

Professor of the Kapodistrian University of Athens said that the phenomenon deeply interests the scientific community but for the time being has not raised concern to the islanders. "We are closely monitoring the progress of the seismic activity but for now we have not observed any change.

However, seismologists urged the local authorities to be on alert following Tuesday morning's tremor measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale with epicenter 15km north of the village of Molyvos, Lesvos island.

"The seismic dynamic in the area has given earthquakes over 7 Richter," said seismologist Gerasimos Chouliaras, chief of the Seismic Research of the Geodynamics Institute to Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

On his part, Professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Costas Papazachos said "Of course we are worried due to the region's history. It is not very common to have successive tremors over 5 Richter. It would be advisable that authorities are on alert."

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