Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-09-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] Early draft of 2003 state budget publicised by economy minister

[02] New Athens airport picks up another honour at Int'l forum

[03] Problems with Thursday's Olympic Airways flights due to strike

[04] Greece to participate in Barcelona book festival

[05] Weather Forecast: Rain on Thursday

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

[07] ASE follows international markets' rebound on Wednesday

[01] Early draft of 2003 state budget publicised by economy minister

The cabinet on Thursday discussed a first draft of the 2003 budget National Economy and Finance Minister Nikos Chirstodoulakis presented and then publicised.

According to the budget, the GDP will grow by 4.1 per cent in 2003, compared to an estimated 3.8 per cent forecast for 2002, while inflation will rise by 2.5 per cent in the 2003 fiscal year.

Nominal growth of GDP will stand at 7.3 per cent compared to 7.1 per cent in 2002, the public deficit will decrease by 99.3 per cent, while state income will grow by 5.3 per cent compared to 2002 and privatizations will bring an additional 1.5 per cent of GDP to the state coffers.

[02] New Athens airport picks up another honour at Int'l forum

Athens new international airport shared the honours with the Dubai International Airport in the five to 15 million passenger per annum category during the eighth international ?World Route Development Forum-Routes 2002?, held this week in the Greek capital.

The Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport at the Spata site, east of Athens, shared the top spot in its category with the well-known Persian Gulf facility, while it also picked up an award for overall efficiency in the marketing sector.

It began operation in March 2001, replacing the old Athens airport in a coastal district southeast of the capital.

The London City Airport was given top honours in the up to five million passengers category, followed by Munichs Airport in the 15 to 25 million category and Amsterdams Schiphol Airport in the more than 25 million passenger category.

Some 800 delegates from around the world attended the two-day conference, sponsored by the Athens Airport, which focused on the prospects of Europes new airport in light of the upcoming 2004 Olympic Games.

[03] Problems with Thursday's Olympic Airways flights due to strike

A four-hour work stoppage by Greek air-traffic controllers from 12 noon through 16.00 hours on Thursday will herald problems with Olympic Airways (OA) domestic and international flights.

The state-owned airline announced that on Thursday 12 of its flights would be cancelled while departure times for 28 more flights will be transferred.

[04] Greece to participate in Barcelona book festival

Greece will participate with a national pavillion in the Barcelona International Book Festival on October 2-5 for the first time, as well as in the frankfurt International Exhibition on October 9-14 where it was the honoured country last year.

Cooperation between Greece and Spain in the book sector has also been strengthened by the book festival held in Athens in May, 2002, where Spanish-language literature was honoured and whose translations hold third position in the Greek market after English and French.

Spanish writers and literature critics will be prersenting seven Greek colleagues of theirs whose books have recently been translated into Spanish.

They are Pavlos Matesis, Petros Markaris, Ioanna Karystiani, Filippos Dracontaidis, Rea Galanaki and Lena Divani.

[05] Weather Forecast: Rain on Thursday

Rain and storms are forecast in all parts of the country on Thursday. Winds southerly, light to moderate, turning strong in parts of the Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 15C to 24C; in the west from 18C to 27C; and in the rest of the country from 19C to 29C. Cloudy in Athens with temperatures between 22C and 28C; same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 19C to 24C.

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 0.984

Pound sterling 0.632

Danish kroner 7.486

Swedish kroner 9.176

Japanese yen 120.9

Swiss franc 1.476

Norwegian kroner 7.373

Cyprus pound 0.578

Canadian dollar 1.561

Australian dollar 1.805

[07] ASE follows international markets' rebound on Wednesday

The Athens Stock Exchange followed a rebound in international markets on Wednesday, ending a several-day decline in stock prices.

The general index rose 0.97 percent to end at 1,836.22 points, rebounding from a four-year low closing on Tuesday, with turnover a low 92.7 million euros.

The Telecommunications, Industrials and Holding sectors scored the biggest percentage gains of the day (1.62 percent, 1.22 percent and 0.96 percent, respectively), while the Bank, Insurance and Wholesale sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses (1.0 percent, 0.93 percent and 0.77 percent).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks rose 0.21 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index ended 0.63 percent higher and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index ended 0.71 percent up.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 155 to 146 with another 68 issues unchanged.

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