Humanities

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki said Monday that the main change proposed by the bill on amendments to the Law on National Councils of National Minorities is for the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) to be in charge of conducting council elections and not the Ministry, as was the case so far.

BRUSSELS - Serbia's GDP will increase by 1.1 per cent this year and it will rise by 1.9 per cent in 2015, the European Commission (EC) latest spring forecast shows.

LONDON - Peripheral banks, used to paying generous new issue spreads compared to banks from the eurozone core, have become victims of their own success, and overwhelming demand for their bonds has withered in recent weeks as spreads have tightened.

Greece said on Wednesday it expected to beat a 2014 budget target set by its international lenders and may tap bond markets again with an issue of between 3 and 6 billion euros to plug any potential funding gap over the next 12 months.

An icon of Christ dating to the 6th century, part of the collection of Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai. According to experts, eye and eyebrow asymmetries point to the artist expressing Christ’s holy and human dimensions. Below right: Tasos Margaritof.

By Yiouli Eptakili

BELGRADE - The role of the civil sector in Serbia must be strengthened in order to increase the transparency of legislative procedures after the forming of the new government, it was stated on Tuesday at the media conference on experiences of the Visegrad Group.

It took Eurobank just four hours to fill its book with adequate offers for its approximately 2.5-billion-euro share capital increase from foreign investors on Friday, as investors offered 1.24 billion euros to add to the 1.33 billion that the consortium led by Fairfax has tabled.

National Bank of Greece is preparing to price a senior unsecured bond at a lower yield than its sovereign, in a sign that the «doom-loop» between sovereigns and their banks might finally be broken.

BELGRADE - Public debt crisis is inevitable unless a solution to the issue of public companies is found, Nikola Altiparmakov of the Fiscal Council stated on Tuesday.

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for January - February 2014 increased by EUR 114.1M or 0.3% of GDP, according to Bulgaria's National Bank preliminary data.

Foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for February 2014 increased by EUR 41.3M, compared to an increase of EUR 152.5M for February 2013 which is a drastic decline of 72.9% on an annual basis.