Financial crises

The chairman of Greece's privatisation agency will step down later this week after his three-year term came to an end last month, the agency said on Monday.

Aris Xenofos, who took on the job in 2017, has overseen a number of major privatisations, including extending a concession for the operation of Greece's largest airport, Athens International Airport.

The suspension of tax obligations will not suffice to reverse the negative sentiment in the economy, recorded also in the tax authorities' statistics: Within just one month, expired debts to the state grew 1 billion euros, which calls to mind the decade of the bailout program, when every year saw the creation of €12-13 billion in new debts.

Residential property prices continued to edge higher over the third quarter of the year, as according to figures released by the Bank of Greece on Monday there was a 3.2% annual increase. However, the growth rate slowed for a third consecutive quarter.

Even when (not if) coronavirus pandemic has passed, Europe could find the most damaging economic legacy is not the vast piles of government debt but the hundreds of billion euros in liabilities that have landed on companies.

Turkey's current account balance posted a deficit of $2.93 billion in June, slightly down from the market expectation, according to the Turkish Central Bank data on Aug. 14.

The June figure widened by $2.8 billion from the same month last year, data showed.

The country's 12-month rolling deficit totaled at $11.1 billion, the bank said.

Turkey's current account balance posted a $5.06 billion gap in April, widening from a $469 million deficit in the same month last year, the Turkish Central Bank announced on June 12.

According to the balance of payments figures released by the bank, the country's 12-month rolling deficit totaled $3.3 billion.

The overly ambitious fiscal targets included in Greece's bailout programs undermined the debt-racked country's economic growth, according to a report commissioned by the European Stability Mechanism titled "Lessons from Financial Assistance to Greece."

National Bank (NBG) and Alpha, two of Greece's largest lenders, increased provisions to cover anticipated loan impairments from the coronavirus crisis as they kicked off the first quarter earnings season for the sector on Thursday.

Greece on Thursday announced a package of measures amounting to 115 million euros to support the country's air transport sector, hit hard by the lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus including the grounding of flights.

The European Commission will propose on Wednesday that Greece gets 32 billion euros of the new recovery fund, of which 22.5 billion would be grants and 9.4 billion would be loans.