Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-05-21

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Unsettled on Tuesday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[03] Greece pledges to help draft integrated plan for SE Europe development

[04] Greece shows rise in productivity, EU says

[01] Weather Forecast: Unsettled on Tuesday

Changeable weather is forecast in most parts of the country, with scattered cloud, sunny spells, showers or storms chiefly on the central and northern mainland from late afternoon. The weather will be fine in the Cyclades, Crete and Dodecanese islands. Winds variable, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 12C to 26C; on the rest of the mainland from 14C to 28C; and in the islands from 15C to 27C. Unsettled in Athens, with temperatures between 15C and 27C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 14C to 25C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Indicative tourist buying rates per euro

U.S. dollar 0.927

Pound sterling 0.635

Danish kroner 7.497

Swedish kroner 9.286

Japanese yen 116.5

Swiss franc 1.465

Norwegian kroner 7.611

Cyprus pound 0.582

Canadian dollar 1.429

Australian dollar 1.681

[03] Greece pledges to help draft integrated plan for SE Europe development

The Greek government on Monday pledged to contribute to the drafting of an integrated plan for the development of SE Europe and promote it in the EU, the Stability Pact or the Zagreb Process summit.

Addressing the opening of the two-day 9th Thessaloniki Forum in the northern Greek capital, Greece's national economy and finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis said that the goal of the above initiative was to bring before the international organisations a specific proposal containing prioritised and cost-budgeted actions that would contribute to ''transferring interest to developmental matters''.

The Plan, he added, ''should incorporate the priorities of each country and seek fields of cooperation and mutual benefit''.

[04] Greece shows rise in productivity, EU says

BRUSSELS (ANA/G.Daratos) - Greece and several other countries in the 15-member European Union have shown a rise in productivity since 1995, the European Union's executive Commission said in a report.

Set for official release on Wednesday, the report sounds a warning to European companies that productivity, overall, is showing a lower rate of growth, posing a threat to competitiveness of the EU's economy, especially versus the US.

''Not all EU countries have shown the same drop at the same time in productivity rates, and countries such as Greece, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden have raised their productivity in recent years, matching and often overtaking the US' performance,'' the report said.

Productivity levels in Greece, Austria and Ireland showed a rise throughout 2001, the report added.

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