Browse through our Interesting Nodes for Industrial Services in Greece Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923) Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923)
HR-Net - Hellenic Resources Network Compact version
Today's Suggestion
Read The "Macedonian Question" (by Maria Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou)
HomeAbout HR-NetNewsWeb SitesDocumentsOnline HelpUsage InformationContact us
Friday, 29 March 2024
 
News
  Latest News (All)
     From Greece
     From Cyprus
     From Europe
     From Balkans
     From Turkey
     From USA
  Announcements
  World Press
  News Archives
Web Sites
  Hosted
  Mirrored
  Interesting Nodes
Documents
  Special Topics
  Treaties, Conventions
  Constitutions
  U.S. Agencies
  Cyprus Problem
  Other
Services
  Personal NewsPaper
  Greek Fonts
  Tools
  F.A.Q.
 

Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-14

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

  • [01] ECB's Nouy: Greek banks have improved 'noticeably and substantially' in past two years
  • [02] Mitsotakis wraps up Crete tour with promise for lower taxes
  • [03] Renewables accounted for 15.4 pct of Greece's energy consumption in 2015, Eurostat reports

  • [01] ECB's Nouy: Greek banks have improved 'noticeably and substantially' in past two years

    There has been a significant improvement in the situation of Greek banks, both in terms of capital adequacy and governance, the European Central Bank (ECB) supervisory board chairwoman Danièle Nouy told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) in an exclusive statement on Tuesday.

    According to Nouy, who is also the unofficial head of the latter's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), the main challenge now was to deal with non-performing loans. The issue is expected to be the main focus of her visit to Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Her full statement is as follows:

    "I've had constructive meetings with my colleagues at the Bank of Greece and with the management of the Greek banks during my third annual visit to Greece. The situation of the Greek banks has improved noticeably and substantially in the last two years, both in terms of capital adequacy and in terms of governance."

    "Now the major challenge is to deal with the non-performing loans. Banks have already taken decisive steps internally and I am optimistic that with the new legal framework expected to be enacted soon this challenge will be addressed as well.

    [02] Mitsotakis wraps up Crete tour with promise for lower taxes

    With a pledge to lower taxes if his party comes to power, main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday concluded a two-day tour of eastern Crete in Agios Nikolaos, Lasithi. He said that ND's top priority will be to reduce the taxation rate for businesses and the second priority to reduce the ENFIA property tax.

    "Overtaxation kills growth," Mitsotakis stressed during a meeting with local businesss groups at the Agios Nikolaos Labour Centre, noting that this was Greece's biggest problem.

    "It brings in revenue for the budget but at a very high cost for the growth dynamic and the viability of businesses," he said. "We cannot be proud because, quite simply, we have exceeded revenue targets as a result of a ruthless overpricing."

    He was also pessimistic about the prospects of economy recovery, noting that the country had not returned to growth,as ELSTAT had recently confirmed with its growth figures for the last quarter of 2016, "which were very bad and, in absolute figures, the worst trimester since 1998."

    "The political instability, the sense that we have a government that does not want to implement real reforms, is having a repercussion on investors' willingness to invest money in the market," he said.

    According to Mitsotakis, the 2.7 pct of GDP growth target in 2017 cannot be met since the first half of the year was already lost.

    Earlier, the main opposition leader had accused the government of delaying the conclusion of the programme review which, as he said, has a cost for Greece and the economy. Regarding the 'positive' measures designed to offset additional reforms, Mitsotakis said these will only be activated if Greece meets a 3.5 pct of GDP primary surplus target.

    Referring to the bad loans, he said that New Democracy has submitted a comprehensive proposal which is simpler and more productive than the extrajudicial settlement proposed by the government.

    [03] Renewables accounted for 15.4 pct of Greece's energy consumption in 2015, Eurostat reports

    The share of Greece's energy consumption provided by renewable energy sources (RES) was 15.4 pct in 2015, compared with 16.1 pct in the EU, according to Eurostat figures released on Tuesday.

    The share of renewables in the EU28 countries virtually doubled from 8.5 pct in 2004 to 16.7 pct in 2015, while the goal is to reach 20 pct by 2020. In Greece during the same period, the share of RES rose from 6.9 pct in 2004 to 13.5 pct in 2012, reaching 15.4 pct in 2015. Greece's target is to increase the share of renewables to 18 pct by 2020.

    Among the EU member-states, renewables had the highest share of final energy consumption in Sweden (53.9 pct), Finland (39.3 pct), Latvia (37.6 pct) and Austria (32.1 pct). The lowest shares, conversely, were in Luxembourg and Malta (5 pct), the Netherlands (5.8 pct), Belgium (7.9 pct) and the United Kingdom (8.2 pct).

    Eleven EU member-states (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Sweden) have already met their 2020 targets for the share of renewables. The countries further from the targets included the Netherlands (8.2 percentage points from reaching its national 2020 objective), France (7.8 pp), Ireland and the United Kingdom (both 6.8 pp) and Luxembourg (6.0 pp).


    Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
    Back to Top
    Copyright © 1995-2023 HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network). An HRI Project.
    All Rights Reserved.

    HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute, Inc.
    ana2html v2.01 run on Tuesday, 14 March 2017 - 16:38:09 UTC