Great Recession in Europe

Romania's economy shrank by 12.3 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the first quarter, according to data released on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics. Compared to Q2 2019, the Gross Domestic Product fell 10.5 percent both in gross and seasonally adjusted terms.

Greece's economy contracted in January-to-March compared to last year's fourth quarter, the country's statistics service (ELSTAT) said on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted data showed gross domestic product shrank 1.6 percent in the first quarter, at a faster pace compared to a 0.7 percent contraction in October-to-December.

"I fear German power less than her inactivity," remarked Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski at the height of the eurozone crisis. More than Germany leading Europe, Europe must fear a Germany that eschews its leadership responsibilities.

Greece is expected to have a net allocation of 33.4 billion euros from a European recovery fund, while the country's contribution to the fund will total 10.1 billion euros for a gross receipt of 43.5 billion euros, according to a plan presented by the European Commission on Wednesday.

We have gone out on the international markets and the interest in Romania has been almost 14 billion euros, of which we have chosen to borrow 3.3 billion euros, the Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said after the government meeting on Wednesday. He specified that the loan offered the possibility of financing expenditure from the budget without any problems.

Total credit in Greece's banking system expanded 0.7 percent year-on-year in March after a 1.0 percent decline in the previous month, Bank of Greece data showed on Friday.

[Reuters]

Inflation turned negative in Greece in April, largely because of the collapsing oil prices, the EU statistics agency Eurostat announced Thursday.

The consumer price index dropped 0.9 percent in April, compared to April 2019; in March, inflation was 0.2% and last April, 1.1%.

Greece's current account deficit widened in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

Central bank data showed the deficit was 1.29 billion euros ($1.39 billion) from a deficit of 1.18 billion euros in January 2019.

[Reuters]

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced a 10 billion euro spending plan to prop up the already battered Greek economy in order to survive the unfolding global economic disaster caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Turkey's unemployment rate in December 2019 stood at 13.7 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) revealed on March 10.

The figure was marginally up from the same month of the previous year, rising 0.2 percentage point, TÜİK said in a statement.