News archive of June 2018

Fresh from its June 24 election victory, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will hold its sixth regular grand congress on August 18, a party spokesperson said on June 29.

Turkish military chief Gen. Hulusi Akar on June 29 visited military brigades stationed on the border with Syria, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Last week's Eurogroup set up the final conditions for the end of the third Greek bailout program in August. Since 2010, Greece has borrowed 275 billion euros from European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund. Greece also shed 100 billion euros of private debt in an agreement with the borrowers in 2012.

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into Alaattin Çakıcı, a convicted mafia leader, who threatened a group of journalists in an open letter.

Canada-based DBRS Ratings upgraded Greece's main ratings one notch, from B to B (high), on Friday and maintained the positive trend, in an extraordinary review in the aftermath of last week's Eurogroup decision to ease the country's debt.

The tender for the casino permit at Elliniko - Attica's biggest development project - will have to be announced by August 31. Only that way can the preferred bidder be declared in time for the closure of this privatization by the end of the year, according to the list of governmental pending actions (GPAs) in the area of privatizations.

The local banking system will have to bring the ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans down to single digits through extending its endeavors beyond 2019 with the submission of new plans up to 2022, Piraeus Bank chief executive Christos Megalou told the lender's general shareholders meeting on Friday.

Following the Eurogroup's debt relief decision, priority must now be given to growth, along with sticking to reform implementation and responsible fiscal management, according to the head of Greece's industrialists, Theodoros Fessas, who also warns against a return to the bad habits of the past.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Friday in Brussels that the value-added tax rates on the eastern Aegean islands of Chios (pictured), Kos, Leros, Lesvos and Samos would not be raised to those that apply in the rest of the country.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday expressed uncertainty over the long-term prospects of Greece's debt, along with concern that some of the reforms might be reversed or not implemented, including the reduction of pensions in 2019 and the tax discount in 2020.