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

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

"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 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