Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-04-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] Bounced Cheques-Bankruptcies-March

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[03] New Stock Market-Launch

[04] Weather Forecast-Saturday

[05] Greece - 1999 - Tourist arrivals

[06] Bank of Greece-report

[07] ASE-close

[08] Zagorakis - Doping - Acquittal

[09] Papandreou - hunger strike in Turkish prisons

[01] Bounced Cheques-Bankruptcies-March

The value of bounced cheques and unpaid IOUs declined in March 2001 to 17.129 billion drachmas, down 43.77 percent from the same month a year earlier, Teiresias SA, a market data firm, said in a monthly report released on Friday.

However, a rise was reported in declared bankruptcies to 98, up 127.91 percent from March 2000, said Teiresias, which belongs to the Union of Greek Banks.

In March 2001, petitions for bankruptcy totalled 174, down 14.71 percent on a year earlier, the report added.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Buying rates until Monday

U.S. dollar 374.615

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 540.495

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 45.284

Swedish kroner 37.066

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 301.789

Swiss franc 219.810

Norwegian kroner 41.449

Cyprus pound 584.306

Canadian dollar 242.682

Australian dollar 191.723

[03] New Stock Market-Launch

The New Stock Market is to open on Monday with one company - Unibrain - trading its shares.

The capital markets commission hopes that the newly created market will help to boost liquidity and expand the options available to investors.

[04] Weather Forecast-Saturday

Scattered cloud is forecast throughout the country on Saturday. Visibility will be restricted early in the morning. Winds variable, light to moderate. Temperatures in the north will range from 11C to 26C; on the rest of the mainland and the Ionian from 13C to 28C; and in the Aegean islands from 15C to 25C. Light cloud over Athens, with temperatures between 13C and 27C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 11C to 26C.

[05] Greece - 1999 - Tourist arrivals

BRUSSELS (ANA) Germans led the list of tourist arrivals to Greece in 1999, followed by Britons, Italians and Austrians, the EUs statistical service announced here on Friday.

Specifically, 34.1 percent of the tourists who visited Greece in 1999 were German nationals, with Britons a distant second at 14 percent. Italian tourists accounted for 6.1 percent of tourist arrivals to the east Mediterranean country; Austrians for 5.7 percent, the Unions Eurostat agency said.

According to the same figures, tourism within the 15-member bloc increased by 4.4 percent in 1999 in comparison to the previous year.

[06] Bank of Greece-report

The Bank of Greece on Friday urged for measures aimed to spur growth, and not dealing with accounting and fiscal problems, as the best way to solve the country's social security problems.

Lucas Papademos, the central bank's governor, presenting his report to an annual general shareholders' meeting, also said that reforming the social security system would pave the way for a fiscal restructuring in the country and urged for efforts to boost competitiveness to achieve a speedier real convergence with other eurozone countries.

The central bank stressed that except for measures to boost competitiveness the government needed to promote employment measures through structural reforms.

Papademos said that Greece's real convergence with other eurozone economies would take more time than initial government forecasts. "With EU's gross domestic product rising steadily at an annual growth rate of 3.0 percent and Greece's GDP at 5.0 percent, then the country's economy will converge with the EU average at around 20 years," he said.

[07] ASE-close

Equity prices ended moderately higher on the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday reflecting buying activity in blue chip stocks, included in the MSIC Greece index.

Traders said the market has established a strong base at the 3,200 level and was currently trying to break the 3,300 level, which it was unable break on Friday because of low turnover.

The general index ended 0.51 percent higher, at 3,264.55 points, off the day's highs of 3,295.74 points. Turnover was a low 186.55 million euros, or 63.57 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.46 percent higher at 1,906.67 points, with the FTSE/ASE 40 index ending 0.22 percent lower at 378.77 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 328.61 points, up 0.17 percent.

[08] Zagorakis - Doping - Acquittal

A sports court in Athens cleared Greek national team captain Thodoris Zagorakis of doping charges on Friday.

Judge Dimitris Orfanidis ruled that increased levels of testosterone detected last month in two separate urine samples taken from the AEK Athens midfielder, formerly of Leicester, are the product of ?natural causes?, including recurring acne.

If found guilty Zagorakis could have been banned for up to two years from league play. He missed two championship matches and a friendly with Croatia in the wake of testing positive for suspected steroid use after a game with relegation candidate Kalamata in March.

[09] Papandreou - hunger strike in Turkish prisons

Athens' reactions on the issue of hunger-striking political prisoners in Turkey will form part of a wider European effort, Foreign Minister George Papandreou said on Friday in Parliament, in response to questions from Communist Party (KKE) deputy Liana Kanelli.

He stressed, however, that the right to freedom of speech was a fundamental policy for Greece.

Similar questions regarding the "series of deaths among hunger strikers within and outside prison in Turkey" were also put to Papandreou by three PASOK deputies.

Kanelli was critical of Papandreou for failing to take a stance on a personal level, while contending that the "excellent relations" between Athens and Ankara and the frequent contact between Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem warranted a more active involvement on his part.

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