Economy of Europe

BELGRADE - The Serbian dinar's official median exchange rate against the euro is 117.3388 dinars for one euro on Monday, which is a slight change from Friday, the National Bank of Serbia said.

The dinar is steady against the euro m-o-m and up by 0.4 pct y-o-y.

Bulgaria has paid over 383 million euros for the purchase of Azeri gas in 2022. This was reported by the Russian news agency "Interfax" on Wednesday, citing unpublished data from the European Statistics Agency.

The amount represents an eightfold increase compared to the previous year, the agency notes.

Tuesday was a day of healthy gains on the Greek stock market, reminiscent of the sessions of high growth in the first couple of months of 2023. Assurances by domestic and foreign experts over the strength of the local credit system offered a major boost to bank stocks that led blue chips to a significant rebound.

The Greek stock market opened the week with a 2.1% decline in Monday's first few minutes, as a result of the shocking news of Credit Suisse's demise and takeover by fellow Swiss lender UBS, but stocks gradually began to recover and swung back into the black as the session progressed to close with moderate gains in their majority.

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Britain's Royal Mail has "systemically failed" to meet its mail delivery requirement, lawmakers have said, calling upon regulator Ofcom to probe the postal operator.

"We believe that Royal Mail has systemically failed to deliver against parts of its universal service obligation," read a report from the cross-party Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

The EU must urgently lower energy prices and ease regulations to stop industry fleeing the continent, European businesses said yesterday, as Brussels prepares plans to stimulate the green economy.

The European Union is racing to make Europe more attractive for the companies that could be tempted by massive U.S. and Chinese subsidies and lower energy costs.

The Greek banking sector reacted to the huge external pressure from the closure of two lenders in the United States, as its index on the Athens Stock Exchange rebounded from a decline of almost 5% on Monday to end the session with gains of approximately 1% - even if the rest of the market failed to follow suit.

For Public Power Corporation, the deal reached with Enel that was announced on Thursday regarding the acquisition of the Italian energy company's activities in Romania is particularly important.

The Competition Commission has in its sights two multinationals, Unilever and P&G, which hold the largest market shares in the washing detergent category. 

The rebound expected on Thursday at the Greek stock market, following five consecutive days of decline, did materialize, but the benchmark closed some way from its day-highs.