Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-08-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Biggest summer exodus continues ahead of Wed. holiday

[02] Gov't unveils 12-year energy plan

[03] Papandreou again calls for immediate elections

[04] Greece posts 4.2% rise in growth

[01] Biggest summer exodus continues ahead of Wed. holiday

Tens of thousands of city residents were leaving for the countryside and islands with every possible means, that is, by car, inter-city buses, trains, ships and aircraft.

Stepped up measures, predictably, will be in force by authorities for the safe travel of excursionists departing by car for the holiday period. Trucks on the national roads are forbidden to travel during this period.

Caption: File photo, dated Thurday, April 20, 2006, shows Easter Holiday traffic at the Elefsina toll station, west of Athens. ANA-MPA / P. SAITAS.

[02] Gov't unveils 12-year energy plan

Sioufas told reporters that the report detailed the present and future situation in Greece's energy balance as well as the international developments in energy issues. He added that the report further recorded the energy scenaria with respect to anticipated energy trends both in Greece and around the world up to 2020.

"Based on this report, but also the energy policy followed by the government, we aim at energy supply security and protection of the environment, allowing those propsects to render our economy even more productive and competitive," he said, explaining that regional development, on the basis of the country's energy needs both in the present and the future, were included in this framework.

Sioufas called the report a "very significant tool". He that the second part of the report was slated for completion by the end of December, and would be put to public debate so that proposals of political parties, the business community and social partners would be heard with respect to the energy sector.

Caption: A file photo shows Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis (L) with Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas in a previous Parliament session. ANA-MPA / M. MAROGIANNI. -->

[03] Papandreou again calls for immediate elections

Afterwards, and in comments to waiting reporters, Papandreou noted that "Greece was in the midst of a tragic impasse with the (current) New Democracy government."

He added, furthermore, that citizens' response to this situation is to say "enough"; "there is a choice of hope, dignity and certainty, which is none other than PASOK's programme for a just society with a redistribution of wealth."

Papandreou also said this week's announcement by the government of a new social cohesion fund for lower-income households shows the "government's panic". He also again said that "elections are the only solution, as the sooner they take place the better."

The committee was formed after a decision by Papandreou and is made up of party secretary Nikos Athanassakis and top PASOK cadres Evangelos Venizelos, Anna Diamantopoulou, Petros Efthymiou, Costas Laliotis, Christos Polyzogopoulos, Dimitris Reppas and Thanassis Tsouras. All of the committee members held top ministerial posts in previous PASOK governments, sans Polyzogopoulos, who served as president of Greece's largest union.

The development comes arid a continuing cascade of press speculation claiming that early elections will be called by the premier in late September or early October. Elections in Greece are normally scheduled for March 2008.

Gov't response

Responding, later in the day, to Papandreou, Minister of State and Government Spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said that the PASOK leader's statements were "nothing but an anthology of wooden slogans."

"It is yet another proof that PASOK neither can nor wants to escape from its past of 'hard rock' and irresponsible populism," Roussopoulos added.

[04] Greece posts 4.2% rise in growth

The 4.2 percent increase in the growth rate was attributed to:

-- A 2.8-percent increase in expenditures for end consumption in the second quarter of the year, compared to the corresponding quarter in 2006. This increase contributed by 1.8 percentage points to the increase in final demand in the economy.

-- A 4.9-percent increase in investments in the second quarter, which contributed by 1.1 percentage points to the increase in final demand.

-- A 9.9-percent increase in exports in the second quarter of 2007, marking a substantial increase over the corresponding period in 2006, in which exports rose by 2.9 percent. This increase contributed by 1.4 percentage points to the increase in final demand in the economy.

During the same period, imports rose by 4.4 percent against the second quarter of 2006, when imports had risen by 13.1 percent.

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