Stock market crashes

The current account of Romania's H1 balance of payments ran a deficit of 7.040 billion euros, by 73.44 percent higher than in the year-ago period, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced on Friday.

Brussels – The European Commission projects that Slovenia’s economy will expand by 5.7% this year, a 0.8-point increase on its May forecast. The outlook for 2020 was slightly downgraded to 5%. The eurozone as a whole is expected to post growth rates of 4.8% and 4.5%, respectively.

Austria received orders from investors amounting to 40 billion euros and Greece 25 billion euros for their new 10-year bonds

Greece has raised 3.5 billion euros ($4.2 billion) at a record-low interest rate through a 10-year bond issue, the first of 2021.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said the yield at Wednesday's auction was 0.8%, while demand for the bond was "very high."

Bond sales for Austria, Greece and Slovenia won strong demand on Wednesday, joining larger peers who issued debt via syndication earlier in the month.

Austria received 32 billion euros of investor orders, eight times the 4 billion euros it will raise, and Greece received 28 billion euros of orders for new 10-year bonds.

Holiday package rates fell substantially compared to last year

The Covid-19 pandemic is increasing economic imbalances in the eurozone, the European Commission will tell the bloc's finance ministers on Monday, but reforms and investments funded by European Union money should help address that.

Ljubljana – The central bank says in its latest publication that Slovenia had one of the worst epidemiological situations in the eurozone in the last quarter of 2020. This demanded strict restrictive measures in the long-term that in turn caused another steep decline in economic activity.

The high risk involved in lending to Greek enterprises, due to their small size, and the increased uncertainty in the economy are the main reasons lending rates remain high in Greece.

The World Bank increased Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) projection for 2020, according to its Global Economic Prospects report released on Jan. 5. 

The international financial institution estimates that the Turkish economy grew 0.5% in 2020, up from an estimated 3.8% contraction in June, "amid a substantial expansion in credit," the report said.