Finance

Greece's telecoms operator OTE said on Thursday it will resume dividend payment after four years after its fixed-line business at home stabilised for the first time in seven years.

The company, which is 40 percent owned by Deutsche Telekom, posted a 2.8 percent drop in fourth-quarter core profit, mainly hurt by lower revenues in Romania.

The community at Halkida, the chief town of the island of Evia, has been shaken by the suicide of two people - a 63-year-old mother and her 27-year-old son. They put an end to their lives at 8 a.m. on Wednesday after three years of battling with the Greek judicial system in an effort to regain their pension benefits.

The collapse of Ukraine's hryvnia currency, which has lost half of its value against the US dollar since the start of 2015, has resulted in a surge of inflation, Economics Professor Steve Hanke wrote in a recent blog.

The Greek government will reportedly unveil a plan to offer a 100-payment scheme to taxpayers owing debts to the state, part of a much-heralded pledge by the leftist SYRIZA when it was in the opposition.

President Grabar Kitarovic sent the law on seizure of assets to the constitutional court on Tuesday, claiming some of its provisions were unconstitutional as they do not help debtors stay in their homes.

The law was passed in 2012 and last amended in 2014 on the initiative of current government, led by the centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP.

17 individuals’ assets will be seized after an order issued by the Financial prosecutor, based on data from the Center of Great Wealth Taxation, arising from finance checks performed on people with large deposits.

The checks concern a total of 49 people and are based on banking finance moves they have performed between 2000-2012.

Greece will be able to borrow from the financial markets once it achieves a debt restructuring, investment and sustained primary budget surpluses, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Wednesday.

"For one to be able to return to the markets for borrowing you need to meet three criteria: primary surpluses, restructuring of debt and investments," he told Real FM radio.

The National Bank of Serbia, NBS, on February 25 told commercial banks they must allow customers with loans in Swiss francs to repay their mortgages in euros, at lower interest rates, or with lower monthly repayment rates.

"The NBS estimates that implementation of this decision would significantly relieve the situation of borrowers.

Despite reaching a 'deal' with Eurogroup there is an immediate danger of Greek funds drying up and imminent bankruptcy lurking around the corner due to a gaping fiscal gap in the Greek economy.

HSBC has given its four problem businesses in Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and the United States as little as one year to prove their worth before ?more extreme? turnaround solutions are proposed, its CEO said on Feb. 23.