Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-05

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

CONTENTS

[01] Europe is at a difficult turning point, Tsipras says

[02] EU Commissioner Moscovici expects significant progress on all issues

[03] E-commerce growing steadily in Greece

[01] Europe is at a difficult turning point, Tsipras says

Tsipras underlined that apart ftom the financial crisis, Greece is also facing a refugee crisis and referred to the sacrifices of the Greek people. He also stressed the importance of finding a sustainable solution to the Cyprus issue after 42 years.

Referring to the referendum result in Italy, the German Foreign Minister said that it is a government crisis and not a state crisis "It is not a positive message in a difficult period for the EU. In this context I am grateful to be with a partner that shares the same ideas with us, a friend of Europe," he noted.

Steinmeier also said that he is aware of the difficulties that Greece is facing as a result of the economic crisis and the refugee issue.

[02] EU Commissioner Moscovici expects significant progress on all issues

Upon his arrival to the meeting, Moscovici said that the Eurogroup will examine how close we are to a staff level agreement, underlining that significant progress has already been achieved.

The finance ministers of the eurozone will also discuss the short-term measures for the Greek debt that will be presented by the ESM, he said.

Moscovici said that the mid-term fiscal targets will be also discussed as well as the possibility of IMF participation to the Greek programme. "I believe that today we can make significant progress in all issues," he said and expressed the certainty that as long as Greece is making progress and assumes its responbilities, its European partners will do the same.

[03] E-commerce growing steadily in Greece

The survey, based on a sample of 1,910 Greek online consumers, showed that a 29 pct of online consumers made more than 50 pct of their total purchases online in 2016, up from 25 pct in 2015 and 9.0 pct in 2014. The survey also showed that six out of 10 consumers made more than 80 pct of their online purchases from local e-shops in 2016, up from five out of 10 in 2015. This increase is attributed to the imposition of capital controls and the dynamic operation of thousands of local e-shops in all categories of products and services. Greek consumers, however, enjoyed one of the highest percentages of purchases in Europe from foreign e-shops, with around 30 pct. A 51 pct of consumers used credit cards for their online purchases in 2016, up from 44 pct in 2014.

The five top categories for online purchases remained unchanged from 2015. Travel services topped the list with an 84 pct, followed by hotel reservations (70 pct), equipment and accessories (69 pct), entertainment tickets (69 pct) and clothing/footwear (62 pct).

Online food delivery grew 5.0 pct this year, while payment of bills rose 9.0 pct, car rental grew 7.0 pct and supermarket sales rose 6.0 pct.

The majority of online consumers said they preferred online purchases because they could find better prices (73 pct). However, three out of 10 online consumers said the made a purchase through an e-shop but never returned for purchases again.

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