Economy

The Greek stock market managed to hang on to its morning gains and bring an end to its six-day losing streak yesterday, with the benchmark ending the session near its day high. However, low turnover and the general weakness in investor moves suggested that Wednesday's rise was merely technical rather than anything substantial.

Greek authorities on Wednesday sold 812.5 million euros of one-year treasury bills, the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) said in an announcement.

The interest rate was set at 1.09 percent, unchanged from a previous similar sale in September.

The priorities of Romania's Presidency of the Council of the European Union are organized on four pillars: Europe of convergence, Europe of safety, Europe - global actor and Europe of common values, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Wednesday.

She pointed out that the first pillar - Europe of convergence - is based on "growth, cohesion, competitiveness, connectivity".

Emergency central bank funding to Greek banks dropped in November compared to the previous month, Bank of Greece data showed on Wednesday.

Emergency funding, which is more costly than borrowing from the European Central Bank, dropped to 2.7 billion euros ($3.06 billion) from 3.58 billion euros at the end of October, the data showed.

The same people who have shouldered the fiscal adjustment of recent years continue to pay the lion's share of taxes, with 90 percent of income tax paid by just 19 percent of the population, an event organized by the Economic Chamber of Greece (OEE) on the 2019 budget heard on Tuesday.

Famar, a contract manufacturer to pharmaceutical industries, has completed a 174 million euro ($197 million) debt restructuring and secured new funds from private equity-backed Pillarstone to strengthen its capital position.

Less than a fifth of Greek taxpayers cover 90 percent of the income tax the Greek state receives every year, while just a few enterprises pay the bulk of corporate tax, an economists' conference on the Greek budget for 2019 heard on Tuesday in Athens.

The central bank announced this on Tuesday.

"This level of FX reserves covered 190 percent of money supply (M1) or around six months'' worth of the country's imports of goods and services (almost twice the level prescribed by the standard on the adequate level of coverage of the imports of goods and services by FX reserves)," a press release said, adding:

The reason is the general approach adopted by the Council of the European Union last week on the Mobility 1 package, which threatens with bankruptcy thousands of Bulgarian companies.

Greece's Parliament on Tuesday voted to scrap plans to cut state pensions, in a motion led by the left-led governing coalition hoping to shore up its flagging support ahead of a general election next year.