Eurozone

Greece's fourth post-bailout assessment by the European Commission, which was published Wednesday, is seen as paving the way for the disbursement of 767 million euros in eurozone central banks' profits from Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs).

Greece's fourth post-bailout assessment by the European Commission, set to be published Wednesday, is expected to be fairly positive, paving the way for the disbursement of 767 million euros in eurozone central banks' profits from Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs).

Ta Nea on 9 November published an interview with American economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz in which he essentially admitted that he and a team of his colleagues from the University of Texas in 2015 were working on a plan for Greece to return to the drachma and leave the eurozone.

He viewed this prospect as an attractive solution for Greece's economic problems.

Romania's economy has grown the fastest after 2000, but we have a tendency to press hard on the accelerator, not to be cautious and there is a slippage that means divergence, Mugur Isarescu, the governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) told a Monday's specialist conference. "We are now, at the end of the year, in the ninth year of economic growth.

Greece will have completed its early repayment of loans to the International Monetary fund by early December, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Thursday.

"It will be concluded in the next two to three weeks," Staikouras told a conference in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, referring to the early repayment of loans worth around 2.7 billion euros ($2.98 billion).

The deficit in Romania's FOB /CIF trade balance reached 12.045 billion euros in the first nine months of 2019, higher by 2.089 billion euros y-o-y, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Monday. According to INS, in the first nine months of 2019, the FOB exports amounted to 51846.7 million euro and the CIF imports amounted to 63891.7 million euro.

Germany's opposition to the creation of additional fiscal space for Greece's 2020 budget with the earnings of eurozone central banks from their Greek bond holdings (SMPs and ANFAs) is the reason for the apparent delay in the decision on this matter, which has now been put off until next year.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Romania's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BBB-' with a Stable Outlook, according to a Friday release of the credit ratings and research agency. Romania's Country Ceiling was affirmed at 'BBB+', Short-Term Foreign-Currency IDR affirmed at 'F3' and Short-Term Local-Currency IDR affirmed at 'F3', according to the release.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras will be meeting on Friday with European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in Brussels, where the Greek official attended Thursday's Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

The gap between Greek and Italian government bond spreads turned negative on Thursday for the first time since early 2008, amid expectations political uncertainty will return in Italy while the recognition of economic reforms has boosted Greek debt in recent weeks.