Economy

By Marius Zaharia

Private holders of Greek default insurance could be in for a payout of over $750 million if Greece defaults on debt owed to the European Central Bank or other public-sector creditors, lawyers said.

Additional debt relief will not help pull Greece out its current crisis, the head of the German central bank or Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, said on Thursday.

When currency rate policies become a point of daily political polemics in a country, this has many negative effects on the country as a whole, pushing the risk premiums and rates up, making the country less predictable, said Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan on Feb. 12, in a TV interview on the state-run TRT channel.

The need for a bankruptcy law in Romania regarding individuals has become obvious, but it should be a good law that will provide more benefits than losses and that is focused on negotiations between debtors and creditors outside the court because court trials are slow and costly, Vice-Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Bogdan Olteanu told a specialist conference on Thursday.

By John Geddie

Another round of Greek debt relief could make the country's bonds a safer investment than those of several other eurozone countries, a major US bank has told its clients.

By Renee Maltezou & John O'Donnell

The European Central Bank raised pressure on Greece on Thursday to extend a bailout deal with its international creditors as new leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras told EU leaders austerity is killing his economy and they must find an alternative.

By Jeremy Gaunt

'Grexit' would be sudden, sharp and probably conducted in the dark of night; if Greece were to quit the euro, it would also mark the beginning of a long, hard road - for some harder still than the one already travelled.

The new leftist government wants to keep the country in the currency union, as do its eurozone counterparts.

This is the incredible story of a Bulgarian, who fled prosecution, then emigrated to the US, became Vice President of Sony International and eventually ended up winning a Grammy award.

The council of state has asked the government to clarify the reasons for suspending a strike by steel workers, questioning the nature of the "national security" concerns behind the cabinet decision.

The average monthly wage in Bulgaria in the last quarter of 2014 was BGN 847, which represents an increase of 4.7 % compared to the previous quarter.

This is revealed from the latest data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), which was released on Thursday.