Economy

Economics Professor Steve Hanke praised China's recent move to lower its reserve requirements and predicted further troubles for Greek banks unless recapitalised.

Hanke, who is professor at Johns Hopkins University and Senior Director of the Troubled Currencies Project at Cato Institute, said this in a recent interview for Russia Today.

Moody's Investors Service assigned a provisional unsecured (P)Baa2 rating to Bulgaria's EUR 8 B Global Medium Term Note (GMTN) programme on Friday.

The rating reflects the country's weak economic growth outlook in an environment of moderate credit expansion and persistent unemployment.

TRACES (Trade Control and Expert System) - the Commission's free online system that enhances the safety of the food chain and facilitates trade - is celebrating its tenth birthday. TRACES helps ensure that animals, food, feed and plants are traded safely and thereby help ensure that the food served on 500 million European plates is safe.

 Hellenic Petroleum, Energean Oil submit offers for areas in western Greece as foreign firms opt out of tender

By Chryssa Liaggou

Greek companies Hellenic Petroleum and Energean Oil are the only suitors in the tender to survey for and utilize hydrocarbons in three land blocks in western Greece, the Energy Ministry announced on Friday.

Following the announcement of S&P lowering the long-term sovereign credit rating for Greece to B-, markets posted an immediate negative reaction.

More specifically, Dow Jones dropped by 0.31% at 17.829 units, while S&P 500 noted a -2.21% decrease at 2.058 units.

At the same time the Euro fell by 1.4% against the dollar.

Standard & Poor?s Ratings Services announced on Friday it had downgraded Greece?s rating by one notch ? from B to B- ? and maintained its outlook at ?negative,? on account of ?liquidity constraints? that have ?narrowed the time frame during which Greece?s new government can reach an agreement with its official creditors on a financing program.?

Listed Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) has confirmed a new record in container handling at the port?s three terminals ? Terminal I, which OLP operates, and Terminals II and III, managed by Cosco subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT).

Greek government bonds declined on Friday, with three-year yields rising the most in a week, as the chair of the euro area?s finance ministers? group said governments won?t grant a request by Greece for short-term financing.

?Nobody knows where this is going,? said Peter Schaffrik, London-based head of European rates strategy at Royal Bank of Canada.

Fitch Ratings said in a report on Friday that the eurozone would suffer a significant shock if Greece left, but it would be unlikely to trigger a systemic crisis like that in 2012, or another country?s rapid exit.

According to a Dow Jones Newswire report on Friday afternoon, eurozone officials have rejected a Greek request to issue 4.5 billion euros worth of T-bills.