Greece

The euro zone's rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, agreed on Monday to allow Greece to pay back earlier some of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, the ESM said in a statement, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The move, which concerns loans worth around 2.7 billion euros (2.3 billion pounds), allows Athens to reduce its debt-servicing costs, because IMF loans carry higher interest than Greece would now pay on the market.

Standard & Poor’s raised Greece’s sovereign credit rating by one notch, signaling confidence in the country’s new government and its policies. Coming 16 months after it last upgraded Greece’s rating, S&P said in a statement Friday that it is raising the country’s long-term foreign currency debt to BB- from B+. The ratings agency’s outlook remains positive. Still, the new rating keeps Greece three levels below junk, showing that the country has to do more to regain its investment-grade rating, Bloomberg News reported.

The Greek government has set out its blueprint for helping the country’s banks reduce a 75 billion euro ($83 billion) pile of toxic debt left over from the last recession, Bloomberg News reported. The plan aims to speed up sales of non-performing loans by Greek lenders, repackaging them into securities with the state guaranteeing the safest portions. It’s based on a model used in Italy but unlike that program, the safest tranches of Greece’s NPLs will have a BB- rating -- three steps into junk territory.

Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie’s Links of London appointed Deloitte as an administrator on Wednesday, putting about 350 jobs at risk and adding to the list of high-profile retailers to run into trouble on Britain’s high street, Reuters reported. Links of London was founded in 1990, offering unisex jewelry and lifestyle accessories, with luxury products designed after London’s art, music, and film scenes at the time. Links of London said on its website it was unable to process any online sales, but directed people to its stores.

National Bank of Greece, the country’s biggest bank by assets, wants to pick up the pace as its moves on from the crippling legacy of the financial crisis, and its Chief Executive Officer is planning two main initiatives to get there, Bloomberg News reported. On the docket: a possible move to bring forward the securitization of bad loans currently scheduled for 2021 and the sale of the company’s insurance unit as soon as this year, CEO Paul Mylonas said. The moves could both help cut costs as the bank carries out a restructuring plan and seeks to move toward further digitalization.

Greece revealed an ambitious budget for next year that assumes growth will accelerate to 2.8 per cent from a projected 2.0 per cent this year, driven by higher investment inflows and cuts in corporate and personal income tax, the Financial Times reported. Theodoros Skylakakis, deputy finance minister, said on Monday the centre-right government was also committed to achieving a 3.5 per cent primary budget surplus next year — before making debt repayments — as agreed with Greece’s international creditors.

The IMF has urged Greece and its EU partners to agree to ease its fiscal target in order to support the country’s fragile economic recovery and increase social spending, the Financial Times reported. In its annual assessment of the Greek economy the IMF called on Athens and its European partners to “build consensus around a lower primary balance path” for 2020. The IMF’s position contrasts with the stance of the European Commission which argues the high fiscal target is necessary to keep Greece’s debt load sustainable.

Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has announced tax cuts and structural reforms aimed at rebuilding the country’s credibility with investors, after three international bailouts and a grinding eight-year recession, the Financial Times reported. “Greece has turned a page,” the prime minister said in a speech on Saturday evening to businesspeople in the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Greece’s new finance minister has said that implementing sweeping tax reforms will be his “key priority” as his country seeks to boost growth and rebuild credibility with investors following a decade of international bailouts backed by the EU and IMF, the Financial Times reported. Christos Staikouras told the Financial Times that the centre-right New Democracy government is planning “a comprehensive tax reform that will have a four-year horizon and will accelerate growth”.

Greece unveiled on Monday a plan to overhaul loss-making state-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) to shore up its finances, including voluntary redundancies and selling shares in its distribution network, Reuters reported. PPC, which is 51% owned by the state, has been struggling to collect part of more than 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) of arrears from bills left unpaid during the country’s debt crisis, which began in late 2009.