Greece

Travel receipts posted a remarkable 24.5% increase year-on-year in Greece in January and February, Bank of Greece data showed on Friday, helping moderate the country's current account deficit.

The flame that will burn at the Olympics is spending the night at the ancient Acropolis in Athens, a week before its handover to Paris 2024 organizers.

Credit ratings agency S&P on Friday revised its outlook on Greece to "positive" from "stable," saying the tight fiscal regime will continue to spur a reduction in the government debt ratio.

The key word for Greece and Europe is competitiveness, said National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis in interviews with the Bloomberg and CNBC television networks.

Travel receipts posted a remarkable 24.5% increase year-on-year in Greece in January and February, Bank of Greece data showed on Friday, helping moderate the country's current account eficit.

Tensions with Ankara have resurfaced again after Ankara's objections to Greece's announcement to designate marine parks, including one in the Aegean Sea. 

Ankara's intransigent stance on issues related to the Aegean, as expressed by its ministries of foreign affairs and defense and the ruling AKP party, stem from its long-held theory of "gray zones" in the region.

Significant rain will hit large parts of Greece from Friday to Saturday afternoon, the National Meteorological Service (EMY) said in emergency bulletin issued on Thursday.

The wet spell will sweep in on Friday from the west and quickly spread to the central and northern parts of the country, affecting the Sporades, Evia, the Cyclades and later the Eastern Aegean and the Dodecanese.

Turkey's Defense Ministry said it "remained vigilant" regarding Greece's decision to declare two new Marine Parks, one in the Aegean Sea and the other in the Ionian Sea, saying it will not accept "unilateral conditions" in the islands of the Aegean. 

A decade ago, Greece was in the throes of a devastating debt crisis marked by years of austerity, hardship and unrest. Now, officials and investors say 2024 could be the year its rebound is finally complete.

The Greek economy is forecast to grow nearly 3% this year, approaching its pre-crisis size of 2009 and far outpacing the euro zone average of 0.8%.

Some 20,000 Turks traveled to five Greek islands in the Aegean Sea during the nine-day-long Eid al-Fitr break after Greece launched the visa-on-arrival scheme for Turkish holidaymakers.

The number of Turkish tourists visiting those Greek islands increased by 20 percent compared to the same period of last year.