Eurozone

One of the scourges of the economic policy adopted by the country's previous administration was the cuts made to the public investments program to make fiscal space for social handouts. On top of its more immediate repercussions, this policy risks leaving a great deal of European funding untapped.

The government is determined to change the heads of the state property manager, the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (HCAP), and its subsidiary, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED), charged with attracting foreign investors in the privatization of some of those property assets, over their handling of the privatizations and the dismal financial situation at ele

Bulgaria can adopt the euro by 2023. This is stated in a report by the rating agency Fitch.

The document recalls that the procedure began last year and a final decision on joining the ERM 2, also known as the euro waiting room, is expected by the end of this procedure.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering what could be the best economic incentives for a possible package of measures, including a reduction in interest rates and a new buyback of bonds, to counteract concerns that growth is slower than expected, Associated Press reported.

Banks in the eurozone will get more time to set aside cash to cover for loans that have gone or will go unpaid after the European Central Bank bowed to pressure from Brussels to ease its rules on the matter.

Fitch Ratings said that it expects euro adoption in central and eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia, to have a positive impact on their sovereign creditworthiness, reports SeeNews. 

Greece is in second-to-last place among the 19 eurozone countries and 24th among all 28 European Union member-states in electronic payments per inhabitant, including payments with credit and debit cards and online transfers of money and e-payments of bills, according to European Central Bank data for 2018.

The European Commission is reportedly looking for ways to include returns from European central banks' profits from Greek bonds they bought through the Securities Market Program (SMP) and the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) as budget revenue.

Talks between the government and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition about banks' bad loans will begin next week.
The Greek proposal involves creating an asset protection vehicle where 16 billion euros' worth of bad loans will be transferred and guaranteed by the state.

Greece may be saddled with heavy debt, but a lot of it involves loans provided on very favorable terms. Moreover, the continuing sharp decline in bond yields makes further borrowing an attractive proposition.