Finance

Saudi Arabia has put a second four-percent chunk of shares of the Aramco oil giant, worth tens of billions of dollars, under the control of the country's sovereign wealth fund, state media said Sunday.    

BELGRADE - The fact that, in spite of all global uncertainties it is faced with, Serbia is still a notch away from investment grade is another confirmation that it pursues an adequate economic policy against the backdrop of a multidimensional crisis that has been going on for more than three years, National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said in a comment on a recent Standar

The International Monetary Fund sees Greece returning to fiscal consolidation, with systematic achievement of primary surpluses and debt deleveraging in the coming years, per its spring fiscal report, published on Wednesday.

Following a furore after a private insurer announced a hike in the top-up health insurance premium, the government decided to scrap this voluntary but virtually essential type of insurance and replace it with a new mandatory contribution, taking private insurers out of the equation.

The platform for applications for refunds of the 2019 and 2020 social security contributions to 23,000 salaried lawyers, salaried engineers and doctors is now open.

This concerns several million euros which were wrongly imposed on the above professionals and collected by the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA).

Eurobank, Piraeus and Alpha Bank have announced that they will be keeping mortgage installments at their current levels for 12 months. As pledged by the first two banks, the baseline rates of serviced mortgage loans will remain at the levels they were on March 31, 2023, minus 20 basis points, for 12 months, starting in May. National Bank is expected to follow suit.

The World Bank's ongoing reform could result in a $50 billion lending boost over the next decade, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told AFP ahead of stakeholders' meetings this week where key changes are expected to be announced.

A draft law on managing assets confiscated over criminal activity was the last Finance Ministry bill to be voted in the plenary before elections.

The bill was approved in principle by ruling New Democracy votes alone.

Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said Switzerland's economy would probably have collapsed had Credit Suisse gone bankrupt, in an interview published yesterday.

Keller-Sutter told Le Temps newspaper that the government had acted in the country's best interests in swiftly arranging the takeover of Switzerland's second-biggest bank by its larger domestic rival UBS.

ATHEX-listed Ellaktor Group said on Thursday its 2022 turnover totaled 1.04 billion euros, up 14% from the previous year, and its EBITDA jumped 45% to €239 million.

Pre-tax profit was €68 million in 2022, after a loss of €29 million in 2021, while after-tax profits totaled €519 million, boosted by the sale of a 75% equity stake in the renewable energy sources sector.