Economy

Police on Monday were seeking the perpetrators behind a smash-and-grab in the Athens suburn of Aghios Dimitrios in the early hours of the morning, the latest in a string of such incidents.

The Public Debt Management Agency is targeting more early loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund next year if the interest cost makes financial sense and the country's creditors agree, Kathimerini understands. Its loan strategy for 2020 also includes a significant reduction of treasury bills.

The agreement between Piraeus Bank and Swedish group Intrum is one of the biggest foreign investments and the biggest Swedish investment in Greece (410 million euros).

The Development Ministry is planning to crack down on debt collection companies that instead of simply informing clients of their arrears use harassment tactics against debtors but also against their relatives, often even for sums as small as 20 euros.

Apart from the reduction of the corporate income tax from 28 to 24 percent and the halving of the tax on dividends from 10 to 5 percent, the government's draft tax bill includes a number of other incentives aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship, attracting highly skilled workers in Greece and bolstering investment activity to accelerate growth.

Greece's business spirit appears to be very weak, having been negatively affected by the difficulty faced by new ventures in accessing funding, the strong fear of failure and the absence of any education on entrepreneurship at school.

The management at Alpha Bank is targeting the full restoration of the lender's profits and has drafted a strategic plan aimed at streamlining its financial figures through the securitization of bad loans worth up to 12 billion euros.

Everyone can understand the difficulties that Greek banks face in managing the jumble of problems they inherited from the long-term economic crisis.

One can also understand the problems that the management of banks face today as they operate in an environment of limited capital, a lack of revenues, and low profitability.

The Chinese government has allocated part of the 2020 funding for poverty alleviation to local authorities, the Treasury said on Monday.

Despite the strong rally by Greek stocks since the start of the year, HSBC estimates the Athens Exchange still has great potential to climb further. On Tuesday the British bank upgraded its recommendation for the local market from neutral to overweight, stressing that Greece's macroeconomic prospects have improved considerably after the elections, with a positive impact on stocks.