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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek FinMin expects political decision in Feb 20, SBBE says

[02] Greek budget primary surplus at 183 million euros in Jan

[03] Ambassador of Canada in Athens Morrill visits Crete to strengthen tourism, commerce

[04] Defence Min Kammenos discuss possibility of cooperation with his Lebanese counterpart

[01] Greek FinMin expects political decision in Feb 20, SBBE says

In the announcement, issued after the closed-doors meeting, SBBE said that the Finance minister, commenting on the expressed concerns of industrialists over a vertical fall in market turnover in December, due to uncertainty over completion of a second review of the Greek program, said: "every possible effort is made, but unfortunately external factor and particularly negotiations between European partners and the International Monetary Fund, are to blame for a not timely reach of a decision". SBBE said Tsakalotos expected that a Eurogroup meeting in February 20 will reach a political decision.

SBBE said the meeting focused on the excessive taxation of medium and high-ranking executives of the industry and on the fact that during the last three months top executives were massively fleeing abroad. It is obvious, SBBE said, that this trend weakened the Greek industry's human capital with direct consequences on its competitiveness. The Greek Finance minister expressed his positive response to finding specific solutions.

[02] Greek budget primary surplus at 183 million euros in Jan

The central bank, in a monthly report, said the state budget's primary surplus fell to 248 million euros in January from 386 million last year. The state budget also recorded a smaller surplus of 183 million euros in January, from 287 million in 2016.

Regular budget spending grew to 3.2 billion euros this year, from 3.0 billion in 2016, while revenue grew to 3.7 billion euros from 3.2 billion last year.

Regular budget spending included spending of around 41 million euros on the repayment of state arrears to the private sector.

[03] Ambassador of Canada in Athens Morrill visits Crete to strengthen tourism, commerce

Morrill noted that "the number of Canadians in Greece is expected to rise after yesterday's vote, in the European Parliament, of the agreement between Canada and the European Union, which will be directly implemented, ie within the next weeks, and will extend the trade framework towards Europe, and thus Greece. The "opening" of Canada to Europe will positively affect the economy of all the partner countries.

Voulgarakis welcomed this development, stressing that it is indeed an opportunity for Greece to attract more investors in the tourism and manufacturing sectors and especially for Crete, whose products are distinguished.

[04] Defence Min Kammenos discuss possibility of cooperation with his Lebanese counterpart

The two ministers discussed issues of bilateral interest as well as the developments in the wider region and agreed to meet in the near future with the participation of representatives of both countries' defence industries.

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