Bank of Greece

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed how banks can infuse liquidity into the Greek economy following the coronavirus pandemic at a Tuesday video conference with key ministers, the governor of the Bank of Greece and bank executives.

The Finance Ministry's estimates about the impact of the coronavirus on the Greek economy this year are at the optimistic end of the range of projections expressed to date and near those of the Bank of Greece, according to the Stability Program Athens submitted to the European Commission last Thursday.

The Bank of Greece is working on a plan for the creation of a "bad bank" to which all nonperforming loans (NPLs) of banks will be transferred. The central bank intends to present the plan to the banks, the government and the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) by end-May.

Greek private sector bank deposits rose in March for the second month in a row, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

Business and household deposits increased to 145.08 billion euros ($157.44 billion) from 142.24 billion in February, Bank of Greece data showed.

The Greek economy will shrink much less than "extreme" scenarios projecting a 10 percent or more contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) this year, the head of the country's central bank said on Tuesday.

Greece's current account balance showed a larger deficit in February compared to the same month last year, on the back of a wider trade gap and a deteriorated balance in the primary income account, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.
Central bank data showed the deficit at 1.138 billion euros ($1.23 billion) from a deficit of 1.015 billion euros in February 2019.

As the end of the lockdown is already in sight in Greece the day after the coronavirus outbreak is already stirring extreme concern in the government, among financial players and analysts, and not least in the Bank of Greece with the governor of the central bank, Yannis Stournaras, scampering to come up with 10bn euros to bolster the Greek banking system and avert yet another bank crisis.

Porto Carras is set to have a new owner, as Technical Olympic has agreed to sell the emblematic tourism resort at Halkidiki in central Macedonia to the Ivan Savvidis group's Belterra Investments for 205 million euros.

From now on the government will have to reach for the country's liquidity safety cushion to cover its cash requirements as a result of the reduction of state revenues and the support measures for households and enterprises.

After another record year for tourism in 2019, revenues are expected to take longer to recover from this year's coronavirus pandemic than arrival numbers, according to a special report released on Thursday by the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE). That recovery will also be uneven for Greek tourism in terms of regions and domains, it added.