European debt crisis

Unemployment has been the lowest since 2008, writes NOVA news.
Inflation in the eurozone dropped sharply to 1.2% in May, according to data released by AFP. Analysts surveyed by the Factset data company predicted a modest fall in inflation to 1.4%, down from 1.7% in April.

There are currently five major Balkan candidates for EU enlargement: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia and Turkey. While talks with Turkey have stuttered, the remaining countries could prove pivotal for the EU to continue its policy of enlargement of its union of democratic markets.

Greece's new fiscal package increases uncertainty about the country's medium-term policy stance and is set to generate tensions with Greece's European creditors, Fitch Ratings said on Monday.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Romania's Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook, but warned that the budget deficit might widen to 3.4 percent of the GDP in 2019, a release of the agency informed.

Greece's early repayment of loans from the International Monetary Fund will improve its credit outlook, since it will cut spending on interest and lengthen its debt-maturity profile, the ratings agency Moody's said on Thursday.

The European Union's executive commission has trimmed its forecast for eurozone economic growth this year and next as uncertainty over trade conflicts and weakness in the auto industry hold back output.

Representatives of eurozone member-states in the EuroWorking Group (EWG) on Thursday have approved Greece's request to repay earlier a portion of the bailout loans it has received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Greek finance ministry sources.
The government had sent the proposal to the EWG and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) last week.

Cyprus' first 30-year bond sale was overloaded with orders on Wednesday, with high demand for such long maturities showing just how much Europe's bond market is adjusting to expectations of persistently low interest rates and central bank stimulus.

Public debt in Greece and Italy, the two most indebted countries of the eurozone, grew last year while the bloc as a whole recorded an overall decrease in its liabilities, the European Union statistics office said on Tuesday.

Greece submitted an official request to the eurozone bailout fund on Monday, seeking its consent for the early repayment of loans owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a Greek finance ministry official said.
The Greek government sent a request to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for the repayment of part of its IMF loans, the official said.