Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-01-02

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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Secondary Bond Market-Close

[02] FOREIGN EXCHANGE - WEDNESDAY'S RATES

[03] Turks-Heroin-Testimonies

[04] Banks - Euro - Debut

[05] Greece-olive oil-promotion

[06] Greece-Papantoniou-economy (2)

[07] Greece-Papantoniou-economy

[01] Secondary Bond Market-Close

Bond prices in the secondary market on Tuesday begun their euro-life in heavy trade, as Greece entered the eurozone.

The yield of the Greek euro bond closed at 5.371 per cent and the spread over German bunds was 59 basis points.

Turnover through the central bank's electronic system totalled 185 billion drachmas from 70 billion drachmas in the session before.

[02] FOREIGN EXCHANGE - WEDNESDAY'S RATES

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Wednesday's rates (buying)

U.S. dollar 358.722

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 535.273

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 045.304

Swedish kroner 038.031

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 312.242

Swiss franc 222.117

Norwegian kroner 040.693

Cyprus pound 588.372

Canadian dollar 239.475

Australian dollar 200.665

[03] Turks-Heroin-Testimonies

Four Turkish drug traffickers arrested in Athens several days ago with 513 kilos of heroin were brought before an investigator on Tuesday, but requested and were given until Wednesday to prepare their testimonies.

They had been arrested in downtown Athens in possession of the quantity of heroin they had brought from Turkey and intended to sell in western Europe and which they had carefully concealed in a tourist coach.

They are Erhad Ginik, 47, Musin Antukom, 50, Atini Karadeniz, 26, and Onur Diser, 43.

The drug traffickers were tracked down and arrested following cooperation between Greek, US and Turkish authorities.

[04] Banks - Euro - Debut

A special bank transaction surcharge that for years was tacked on to loans and paid by borrowers was officially abolished on Tuesday, the first day of Greeces entry into the ?euro zone?.

The surcharges abolition was included in a recently passed tax bill in Parliament.

Meanwhile, both state-run and private banks in Greece kept their doors closed to the public on Tuesday in order to check computerised systems in light of the euros circulation in electronic form.

According to reports, bank officials said everything ?went smoothly? in the trial runs.

As of Wednesday, banks in Greece will list all accounts, loans, mutual funds, insurance policies, leasing etc. in both drachmas and euros. The euro-drachma parity has been set at 1 euro equaling 340.75 drachmas.

[05] Greece-olive oil-promotion

Greece's olive oil producing cities on Tuesday announced the creation of an Olive Oil Producing Network (DEPE) to improve promotion of the country's olive oil product abroad.

DEPE will represent Greece to a Euro-Mediterannean Olive Oil Producing Cities' Federation (FEMO), including representatives from local authorities and chambers from Italy, Spain, France and Tunisia.

The decision to set-up a Greek network was taken following talks between George Karabatos, president of Messinia Chamber, and Enriquo Luppi, chairman of FEMO.

DEPE will have 161 members, representing 21 prefects, 86 municipalities and 31 chambers and independent experts from the country's olive oil producing cities.

[06] Greece-Papantoniou-economy (2)

Greece is from today a full and equal member of EMU, the euro is the country's official currency with the drachma developing into an accounting division of the single European currency, National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said on Tuesday.

He said that the economy and finance ministries, the Bank of Greece and the Athens Stock Exchange have been fully prepared to meet this historic change.

Papantoniou said that the government's next task was to achieve social convergence and noted that with the economy growing at an annual rate of 5.0 percent the government would have significant funds to spend on health, welfare and education.

"This is an historic day for the country because we leave behind foreign exchange risks, we enjoying economic stability and we enter a period of rapid economic growth resulting to higher incomes, more jobs and improved business climate," he said.

Papantoniou said that the Bank of Greece participated for the first time to a euro currency auction held by the European Central Bank. The Athens Stock Exchange will resume its operation again on Wednesday, following a four-day holiday, and will be the first domestic market to operate in the euro currency.

Papantoniou reminded that the euro currency will circulate officially from January 1, 2002 and that it would fully replace the Greek drachma from March 1, 2002.

He said that Greece would participate in Euro-group meetings.

[07] Greece-Papantoniou-economy

The Greek government's next aim is to achieve social convergence with the other eurozone member-states and the EU in general, National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, Papantoniou said that "from today Greece is a full member of the eurozone with all the positive consequences this means."

He said that Greece should take advantage of all benefits offered by its participation in the eurozone.

Commenting on a move by domestic commercial banks to raise euro interest rates he said that the government was not allowed to intervene in monetary issues.

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