News archive of December 2019

Taxpayers will need to remember to use their credit and debit cards from the start of the new year, as they will need to make online payments amounting to at least 30 percent of their income over the 366 days of 2020, or face a hefty fine.

The yield on the Greek benchmark 10-year bond posted the biggest decline in the eurozone this year, amounting to 290 basis points (2.9 percentage points) according to a Reuters report on Monday.
The Italian equivalent decreased 137 bps, while those of Germany, the Netherlands and France are expected to end the year with drops of between 45 and 60 bps.

With only one short session left till the end of the year - as stock trading will cease two hours early on Tuesday - the benchmark at Athinon Avenue remained on Monday close to the near-five-year highs registered on Friday.

Former parliamentary speaker Anna Benaki-Psarouda will assume the presidency of the Academy of Athens for the year 2020 on January 1, following a decision of its plenary session.
Psarouda, who was the country's first female House speaker from 2004-07, is currently the academy's vice president and will replace Stefanos Immelos.

The leftist opposition party Monday criticized the conservative administration for failing to nominate a candidate for Greece's presidential elections next year.
Incumbent Prokopis Pavlopoulos' term officially expires on February 15. SYRIZA has said it will back Pavlopoulos, a conservative, if he is nominated by ruling New Democracy.

Weather front Zenovia may have brought a belated white Christmas to many parts of Greece Monday, but it also caused a great deal of hassle for motorists and residents across the mainland and in the northern Peloponnese, as well as the capital.

The civil funeral of prominent composer and former culture minister Thanos Mikroutsikos was held Monday at the First Cemetery of Athens.
He died of cardiac arrest at the capital's Metropolitan Hospital on Saturday after a long bout with cancer. He was 72.

The Prosecution office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has charged former Security Minister Dragan Mektic, Igor Golijanin, Samir Agic and Edin Garaplija with abuse of position over the implementation of an interstate project on cross-border cooperation in fire fighting, which the European Union's Delegation to Bosnia had financed.

Mitsotakis says Greece, Turkey should go to Hague court if agreement is impossible

In a no-holds-barred interview with To Vima's political reporter Dimitra Kroustali, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis indicated that Greece sees resorting to the International Court of Justice as a way to resolve existing disputes with Turkey.

Cypriot police have recovered the stolen ashes of a Swedish teenager after a man who said he accidentally stole the urn they were in phoned the family in Sweden, offering a tearful apology and directions to the missing container, the late teen's mother said Monday.