Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-06-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] It is time to proceed to the disbursement of the next tranche to Greece, Dombrovskis says

[02] IMF's presence or not in the Greek programme is not our criterion, says Digital Policy Min. Pappas

[03] Greek unemployment rate fell to 22.5 pct in March

[01] It is time to proceed to the disbursement of the next tranche to Greece, Dombrovskis says

Asked on the implementation of the prior actions, he said that it is satisfactory adding that Greece has met all its commitments both at fiscal and reform level.

"We believe that it is the time to proceed to the disbursement of the next loan tranche," he said and added that uncertainty has already had negative impact on the Greek economy.

Regarding the debt relief measures, he said that discussions continue and it is the creditors' decision (referring to the member states and not the Commission.)

It is important to conclude the second programme review and proceed to the disbursement of the next loan tranche in order to show that the Greek programme is well on track and the Greek economy is recovering, he stated.

[02] IMF's presence or not in the Greek programme is not our criterion, says Digital Policy Min. Pappas

"The IMF's presence or not in the Greek programme is not our criterion. Our criterion is the conditions for a normal, without questions and doubts, funding of the Greek economy and the Greek debt to be formed along with the 'easy' refunding of our duties", said Pappas.

"We can reach solutions that can bring Greece back to normality in terms of funding and this is the quantitave easing programme" he explained.

[03] Greek unemployment rate fell to 22.5 pct in March

The statistics service, in a monthly report, said that the number of unemployed people was 1,068,469 in March, with unemployment continuing rising among people approaching retirement age. The number of unemployed people fell 74,515 in March (down 6.5 pct from March 2016) and by 19,400 compared with February 2017 (a decline of 1.8 pct).

The number of employed people totaled 3,682,416 in March, up 31,154 from March 2016 (an increase of 0.9 pct) and up 11,439 from February 2017 (an increased of 0.3 pct). The economically non-active population (out of work and not seeking job) totaled 3,270,865 in March, up 0.2 pct from March 2016 and up 0.2 pct from February 2017.

Unemployment among women eased to 26.7 pct in March from 28.6 pct in March 2016, significantly up compared with men (19.1 pct from 20 pct).

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group eased to 46.6 pct in March from 50 pct in March last year, followed by the 25-34 age group (29.5 pct from 30.3 pct), the 35-44 age group (19.6 pct from 20.8 pct), the 55-64 age group (19 pct from 19.2 pct), the 45-54 age group (18.2 pct from 19.8 pct) and the 65-74 age group (12.7 pct from 12 pct).

Among the country's regions, Epirus-Western Macedonia recorded the highest unemployment rate (27.4 pct in March from 28.5 pct in March 2016), followed by Peloponese-Western Greece-Ionian Islands (23.3 pct from 23.8 pct), Macedonia-Thrace (22.6 pct from 24.4 pct), Crete (22.6 pct from 23.3 pct), Thessaly-Central Greece (22.5 pct from 26.6 pct), Attica (21.8 pct from 23.1 pct) and Aegean (17.9 pct from 16.3 pct).

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