Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-04-14

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Monday - Partly cloudy

[02] Latest poll gives ND 8.4%-lead over ruling PASOK

[03] Greek central bank governor appointed as new ECB vice-president

[01] Weather Monday - Partly cloudy

Scattered clouds throughout Greece on Monday, turning to light showers in the south into the evening. North to north-easterly winds, weak to moderate. Temperatures between 9C to 16C in the north; 11C to 20C in the rest of the mainland; 15C to 22C on the islands.

Partly cloudy in Athens with a chance of rain later in the day, 13C to 20C. The same forecast for Thessaloniki, 12C to 16C.

[02] Latest poll gives ND 8.4%-lead over ruling PASOK

The gap between ruling PASOK and main opposition New Democracy is apparently widening in favour of the latter, according to the latest in a string of voter preference polls released over the past week.

According to results of a poll conducted by the MRB firm for New Democracy and completed on March 19, the main opposition party also posted high marks in terms of rallying supporters.

Specifically, 36 percent of respondents favored ND to 27.6 percent for PASOK. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE), meanwhile, earned 5 percent, the Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos) 3.2 and the out-of-Parliament Democratic Social Movement (DHKKI) 2.4 percent. The newly formed Movement of Free Citizens (KEP), led by outgoing Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos, polled around 4.3 percent of respondents approval.

On the question of which party would win the elections if they were to take place over the upcoming weekend, 50.8 percent of respondents said ND, with 30.6 choosing ruling PASOK.

Regarding the question of which political leader is best suited as prime minister, ND leader Costas Karamanlis earned 40.1 percent to Premier Costas Simitis 36.9 percent. The answer ?neither of the two? garnered 20.6 percent.

In a similar MRB poll released last December the main opposition party was ahead of PASOK by 6.6 percent, while Simitis led Karamanlis by 1.9 percent in the ?head-to-head? comparison.

[03] Greek central bank governor appointed as new ECB vice-president

The European Unions finance and economy ministers appointed Greeces central bank governor, Loukas Papadimos, as the European Central Banks (ECB) new vice-president on Saturday, during their meetings in Oviedo, Spain.

Papadimos, recently touted as the ?favorite? for the position, succeeds Frenchman Christian Noyer. The other candidate for the post was Belgian economist Paul de Grauwe.

The new ECB vice-president was in 1947 in Athens. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also received his doctorate in economics. Between 1975 to 1984 he served as a professor of economics at New Yorks Columbia University. He has also served as a Federal Reserve Bank (US) expert.

Papadimos was appointed as the vice-governor of Greeces central bank in 1993, and governor in 1994. His research and scholarly work has mostly centred on issues dealing with macro-economic theory and policy.

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is composed of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) member-states.

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