International Monetary Fund

By Dinesh Nair, Ercan Ersoy & Ruth David

National Bank of Greece SA has hired banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to sell as much as 40 percent of Turkish unit Finansbank AS in a secondary share offering, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

A Supreme Court prosecutor has ordered a probe into claims by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras that they received death threats for speaking out on tax evasion, Kathimerini understands.

The measures for the 2015 budget will be discussed during the official visit of the mission of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to Bucharest at end-November, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced on Wednesday.

Senior representatives of the Romanian government and the National Bank on Wednesday will start talks over the next assessment of the stand-by agreement with the IMF, the European Commission and World Bank.

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Greece has received three bids for the sale of mobile phone frequencies aimed at upgrading telecom services in the country, the telecoms regulator said on Tuesday.

Greece’s biggest telecoms operator OTE and Wind Hellas submitted offers to buy mobile radio frequency rights within the 800 and 2,600 MHz band, telecoms regulator EETT said in a statement.

Judicial authorities are expected to launch an investigation into claims by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde that she received death threats after pushing for a crackdown on Greek tax evasion, Kathimerini understands.

Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou sent a letter to Lagarde, asking her to provide details about the threats, it emerged Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund’s denial of reports that it will host a discussion on Greek debt relief in November and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s insistence that no talks on the next phase for the Greek economy can be held until the troika review due to begin at the end of September, have heightened concern in Athens that it could be in limbo for the next few months.

Greece will have to get the troika review due to begin at the end of the month out of the way before it and its lenders can begin assessing issues such as a third bailout and debt relief, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Friday after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Milan.

FX reserves EUR 10.9 billion at end-August

BELGRADE -- The foreign exchange (FX) reserves of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) amounted to EUR 10,949.2 million at the end of August.

This covered M1 by 304 percent and more than seven months of imports of goods and services.

BELGRADE - The foreign exchange (FX) reserves of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) amounted to EUR 10,949.2 million at the end of August, covering M1 by 304 percent and more than seven months of imports of goods and services.

The largest inflow to FX reserves, EUR 748.3 million, came from the disbursement of a loan from the United Arab Emirates, the NBS said in a release on Friday.