Economy

Walter Heller, an economist who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, used to quip that "an economist is a man who, when he finds something works in practice, wonders if it works in theory." Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's former finance minister and now leader of the MeRA25 political party must be a great economist considering that he wants to replace the euro, a currency which actuall

The interest rate spread in Greece between new deposits and loans increased to 5.50 percentage points in March as the weighted average interest rate on new deposits remained almost unchanged at 0.23%, while the corresponding rate on new loans increased to 5.73%, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

While Cyprus' economic growth is expected to remain strong, the economic and the fiscal outlooks are exposed to significant downside risks, DBRS Morningstar said in a commentary on the country's new Stability Program.

A quarter of Greek retail businesses disappeared altogether in the decade from 2010 to 2020, an indication of the heavy price paid by the sector during the financial crisis and then during the pandemic crisis, according to an Alpha Bank analysis.

The participation of tax and social security debtors in the 72- or 120-installment arrangements is increasing gradually, but without recording any significant performance. Applications are still low, but lately there seems to be a bit more interest.

Mytilineos on Thursday reported its best ever performance in a first quarter, with net profit after minorities soaring 113% to 143 million euros, earnings per share jumping 109% to €1.04 and EBITDA rising 72% to €225 million, while turnover rose 30% to €1.358 billion. Net debt, on an adjusted basis, stood at €948 million.

The main index at the Greek bourse cleared the 1,100-point bar with relative ease on Friday, ending a week of gains and moderate trading volume. This last session of the week showed price growth across the board in what was the fourth consecutive day of gains for the benchmark.

Piraeus Bank, the country's third-largest lender by market value, reported higher quarterly net earnings on Friday on strong net interest income.

The bank, which is 27% owned by the state's HFSF bank rescue fund, reported net earnings of 180 million euros in the first three months of the year, compared with a profit of 170 million euros in the last quarter of 2022.

The total payments made to banks since 2020 have amounted to $1.3 billion, Demirören Holding has announced.

"We would like to inform the public that Demirören Holding has fulfilled all of its obligations and will continue to do so," the company said in a statement, noting that payments made to banks have reached a total of $1.3 billion since 2020.

Kosovo Customs also determined that the company had increased the cost of recent imports of passports and identity cards.

Despite these issues, the company still has an ongoing contract with the Kosovo ministry, which claims it did not have any information on these alleged irregularities.