The Finance Ministry’s optimism fades in face of poor results and harsh Eurogroup demands; the Chinese are to compete with Russians over the port of Piraeus; the troika’s Task Force warns of social upheaval; ‘vultures’ made fortunes by exploiting crisis hit governments; and Greeks turn towards smaller cars.

DIMOKRATIA

Failures everywhere

Smiles freeze after order from Eurogroup that outstanding issues are resolved [by Sunday]

3.9% – Stournaras was too quick to celebrate the easing of the recession

Thomsen and his crew are now severely cutting welfare spending

[Administrative Reform Minister]
Kyriakos Mitsotakis says that all public employees who win in court over mobility scheme will be reinstated!

The Finance Minister now has the responsibility to find the necessary funds

IMERISIA

Sino-Russian battle over PIraeus

Moscow also shows high levels of interest for the Port Authority

Russian Rail will make an offer for 67% of the Piraeus Port Authority S.A. according to statements made by chairman Vl. Yakunin.

The Russians have already expressed an interest in acquiring the port of Thessaloniki and the rail company TRAINOSE S.A.

The Russians are dynamically entering the bidding over the Piraeus Port Authority and will compete with the Chinese Cosco which is also seeking the port.

NAFTEMPORIKI
 
Report for Greece: Task Force foresees a social explosion
 

Conditions are increasing the threat of a social explosion according to the Task Force for Greece, led by Horst Reichenbach. The Task Force believes that the much anticipated growth of 2014 will be anemic and unemployment will continue to remain high for many years to come. It accepts the limited ability of many Greeks to pay taxes and warns that even the alternative plan to recoup outstanding debts to the state via the forced sale of property is doomed to fail given that the real estate market is frozen. For the third time it notes that lending to companies is non-existent for those which do not have concrete assets to pledge as collateral. 

ELEFTHEROTYPIA
 
“The vultures made fortunes from Greece”

A study by two European think tanks, the Transnational Institute and Corporate Europe, has slammed ‘speculative investors’ as well as the European Commission which had a ‘duplicitous role,’ revealing the use of investment agreements to secure high profits through lawsuits filed against governments of European countries hit by the crisis. The ‘vultures’ as they are described in the report “Profiting from the Crisis” sought more than 1.7 billion in compensation from Greece, Cyprus and Spain, while hedge fund managers are also quoted as saying bluntly, “the Greek crisis is certainly a great opportunity to make money.”

KATHIMERINI

A turn towards compact cars

From a 40% share of the market in 2007 they have risen to 60% in 2013. Only 1.4% are SUVs

Greeks are turning out of necessity to compact and diesel powered cars in order to restrict fuel costs and pay less tax. It is this fact that is behind the continual improvement in compact car market since September. The market share of small and very small cars from 40% in 2007 reached 60% in 2013. In contrast the share of large family cars dropped from 10.3% to 4.4% and SUVs from 4.7% to 1.4%. Sales of luxury and super-luxury cars have also shrunk. In 2013 only 25 were sold of which only 2 were super-cars (one Bentley and one Porsche Panamera) versus 495 luxury cars and 35 hyper luxury cars in 2007.