Macroeconomics

The long-term foreign debt of Turkey’s private sector rose to $166.5 billion in June, a rise of $8.9 billion compared to December last year, the Central Bank has announced, amid rising concern over companies’ mounting debt stocks.

Greece's current account surplus widened in June compared to the same month last year, according to balance of payments figures released by the central bank on Wednesday.

The surplus stood at 1.373 billion euros ($1.82 billion) versus a surplus of 898 million euros in June 2013.

It is known that we were entering critical days both nationwide and globally. While this critical process is approaching, we see that data regarding Turkish economy is also deteriorating and bad signals are increasing. International credit ratings agencies have started saying that the risk perception on Turkey has increased.

36% of Bulgarian businesses see the minimum wage as a deterrent to employment, according to a survey requested by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.

The biggest share of opponents to the minimum wage was registered in the cities of Montana, Veliko Tarnovo and Kardzhali, where 43% of those polled said it was a deterrent to hiring young workers.

Although Romania's economy recorded two straight quarters of decline, it stays on a positive trend with a seasonally adjusted economic growth of 2.6 percent in the first half of 2014 compared to the similar period of 2013, Economy Minister Constantin Nita said in a press release to AGERPRES on Monday.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta has stated on Monday, at the opening of the Diaspora Estival event in Eforie Nord (southeastern Romania), that Romania's economic direction depends on the evolutions of the EU economy, and on a European level it must be said that austerity measures ultimately mean losing the economic war.

By Alessandro Speciale, Jana Randow & Joshua Robinson

Mario Draghi’s promise of cheap cash for banks betting on the euro-area revival is losing its allure.

President Traian Basescu on Thursday said that according to the standards of the European Union, Romania has entered recession, adding that economy in Romania is booming only in the imagination of Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

Despite the slowdown registered in Q2 in its growth pace, Romania's economy is still on track for the 2.8 percent year-end growth target the state budget is built upon, Minister-delegate for Budget Liviu Voinea told AGERPRES on Thursday.

It was by a hair-thin margin that the Greek economy missed recording positive growth for the first time since 2008 in the second quarter of 2014, the German bank Berenberg said in an analysis on Wednesday.