Economy of the European Union

The International Monetary Fund sees Greece returning to fiscal consolidation, with systematic achievement of primary surpluses and debt deleveraging in the coming years, per its spring fiscal report, published on Wednesday.

Retail sales volume has increased by 21.5 percent in February from the same month of last year, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

This was lower than the 34 percent year-on-year increase in retail sales in January. Strong earthquakes hit several provinces in Türkiye's south in early February, which devastated businesses and killed more than 50,000 people.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday revised upwards its forecast for the Greek economy this year to 2.6% from its autumn forecast of 1.8% in October 2022, and said the Greek economy was expected to grow by 1.5% in 2024 from 1.4%.

"The possible date for the adoption of the euro in Bulgaria is January 1, 2025," the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, told Nova TV.

Economic powerhouse Germany wants EU members to be given binding targets to slash their debts under new spending rules being prepared by Brussels, a document seen by AFP has showed.

In November, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, put forward plans to reform the Stability and Growth Pact that limits how much EU countries can borrow.

Eirini Zarkadoula, the Brussels correspondent for ERT - the Greek Public Broadcasting Company  - and for the Athens News Agency, joins Thanos Davelis to break down the main takeaways from Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe's visit to Greece this week that once again put the country's economic progress in the spotlight. 

The eurozone is near the end of the tighter monetary policy cycle, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday.

Addressing a conference organized by the Federation of Insurance Companies of Greece, the central banker said Greece was also close to obtaining investment grade.

The Bulgarian economy will slow its growth to 1.8 percent this year, according to the spring macroeconomic forecast of the Ministry of Finance.

Due to the Russian war against Ukraine, an alternative scenario has also been developed, according to which the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices may deviate downwards by between 0.5 percentage points.

Eurogroup chief Paschal Donohoe congratulated Greece and its Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Greece's economic progress in recent years during their meeting at the Maximos Mansion in Athens on Tuesday.

The value of debit and credit cards transactions by Greeks last year reached 49.6 billion euros, accounting for approximately 38% of private consumption.