Economy of Europe

Russian energy giant Gazprom has booked the entire capacity tendered by the Hungarian side of the Arad - Szeged gas pipeline, chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' Committee for Industries and Services Iulian Iancu told a conference on energy this Monday.

A total of 1072 fake Bulgarian banknotes were apprehended in the National Center for Analysis of Bulgaria's central bank (BNB) in Q1 1014, shows the bank's statistics. 

They are by 326 more year-on-year. Their relative share of the total currency circulation is 0.000326%. 

By Alexis Papachelas

The euro-or-drachma debate should have been settled a long time ago. Even the most vocal doomsayers outside the country have stopped predicting that Greece will be forces to leave the euro area and switch back to its old currency.

Russian Gazprom and Austrian OMV signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding to build the Austrian section of the South Stream gas pipeline.

The Memorandum was inked at the headquarters of OAO Gazprom at a working meeting between the Chairman of the Management Committee Alexey Miller and the OMV Chairman of the Executive Board, CEO Gerhard Roiss.

Romania will have to return money to the European Commission for having breached community regulations on the use of European cash allotted under the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP.

A total of around 315 million euro is being reclaimed from 11 member states, while Romania will have to hand back 4.24 million euro, according to a report by the Commission.

Nikos Chrysoloras & Rebecca Christie

The Greek government, approaching the end of a second international bailout that has kept it afloat since 2010, plans a return to markets by selling 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) of bonds, three officials said.

In February the profit of Bulgarian banks rose by BGN 77 M and for the first two months of 2014 reached BGN 149 M, shows Central Bank (BNB) data. 

This is the third consecutive month with increasing profits. The growth is mostly thanks to lower expenses on bad credits and decreasing interest rates. 

The closing auctions helped the Greek stock market’s benchmark index to post gains of almost 1 percent on Friday, as it registered a small weekly drop of 0.21 percent.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,327.87 points, adding 0.98 percent to Thursday’s 1,314.99 points. The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX 25 expanded 1.05 percent to 428.65 points.