Money

The moment of truth has arrived for foreclosures of private homes that are mortgaged and changes to the scheme for debt settlement in 100 installments.

By the end of this year, Macedonia will borrow another ?700 million, ignoring European Commission advice contained in the recent annual progress report to stop adding to the already sizeable debt.

Days before the Commission said it was worried by Macedonia's growing debt, the government said it would issue more eurobonds worth ?500 million to support the budgets this and next year.

Negotiations between the Greek government and the four creditors from the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Stability Mechanism and International Monetary Fund appear to moving towards a deadlock as far as decisions for non-performing loans are concerned.

Three potential buyers have placed binding bids for Bulgaria's Vivacom by Thursday's deadline, Sofia-based Capital weekly reported.

An attempt by the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) to raise EUR 650 M through a tender has failed and now the state-owned will move to direct talks with interested banks, Deputy Energy Minister Nikolay Nikolov said on Thursday.

The Greek government is racing to draft measures intended to achieve a compromise with the country's European creditors, so that much-needed bailout funds may be released.

But the government has to work fast, as the Eurogroup has set a deadline of Nov. 16 for an agreement that would provide the next 2 billion euros ($2.17 billion) in bailout funds. 

The representatives of Greece’s creditors are back in Athens for another round of negotiations with the Greek government.

Shortly after the beginning of the discussions, a source said the representatives demanded immediate and essential changes in the pension system which should be decided by the end of November.

Greece’s government took another baby step away from home owners in danger of losing their primary residence in the hope of reaching a compromise deal with creditors from the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Stability Mechanism and International Monetary Fund.

Failure to secure the 2-billion-euro tranche benchmarked for Greece at Monday’s Eurogroup, means its back to meetings with representatives of four international creditors from the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Stability Mechanism and the International Monetary Fund.

Hundreds of thousands of Greek pensioners awaiting their monthly retirement benefits are left stranded without funds that they are eligible for. There are currently 330,000 pending pension requests for main and auxiliary pensions and 61,000 lump sum payments outstanding. Social Security funds, however, are unable to proceed with their files.