Temperatures All Over Greece To Take Nosedive Monday Night!

It looks like winter has really set in across Greece and from what has been announced temperatures are expected to take a sharp nosedive on Monday night, bringing a cold snap that will persist throught the whole week. The bitter cold is expected to be especially felt on Tuesday morning and there are rumors that we also might see the first snow fall of the season in Athens by Thursday.

The Hellenic National Meteorological Service said that during the course of Monday night, Athens will begin to experience moderate northeρly winds of up to 5 Beaufort (in the Aegean up to 7 Beaufort), but they will strengthen as the days proceed. Temperatures at first will range from 10-14 degrees Celsius during the day but are then expected to drop sharply overnight to around 4 Celsius (and even to well below 0 in some parts of northern Athens).

In other areas of the country, it is going to be worse! The bitter cold is going to freeze up the Northern city of Thessaloniki, and residents there will see the first frost of the season on Tuesday morning. In the rural part of Macedonia and Thrace it is expected that residents will feel below zero temperatures all day and all night.

Brrrrr.... Stay warm Greek frappers!

ELSTAT - Deflation Hits Record -2.9% In November!

Half a dart, one deflation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Greece posted in November its highest deflation since records began in 1960, as consumer prices fell 2.9 percent on an annual basis, compared with 2.0 percent in October, Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) said on Monday.

The statement by ELSTAT, which was released by the sate news agency claims that the deflation rate increase in November 2013 compared to the same month last year was due to: a drop in the food & beverages price index (-1.2 pct), caused by lower prices for fresh fish and fresh produce prices; a 11.5 pct decline in clothing and footwear prices; a 0.5 pct decline in housing price index due to lower rents; a 3.6 pct slump in the household goods and services price index due to discounts; a 2.7 pct fall in transportation due to lower fuel prices; a 4.2 pct decline in communication; a 3.1 pct reduction in entertainment; a 4.2 pct fall in education; a 2.9 pct decline in hotels/cafes/restaurants prices and a 4.9 pct decline in the other goods and services' index.

These were offset by a 3.5 pct rise in alcohol and tobacco prices and a 0.3 pct rise in the health price index.

Greek Officials Crack Case Of Copper Wire Thefts In Attica

Greek officials arrested busted a network charged with stealing copper wires from Public Power Corporation (PPC) infrastructure in the western suburbs of Attica. According to press reports six people were arrested while a seventh is still at large.

Interestingly, the alleged ring leader is a 72-year-old Greek national who owns a scrapyard and his suspected accomplices are five Pakistanis, aged 25-36 years old. The accused are charged with stealing copper wiring from PPC installations in various areas of Attica and especially in Aspropyrgos, Mandra, Elefsina and Megara. The stolen copper was stored in the 72-year-old's scrapyard to be sold for 5000 euros per ton.

Police officials said that at least 55 tons of copper had been sold during the last five months alone, and the ring leader is suspected of earning at least 275,000 Euros.

While investigating the case, the police also discovered and confiscated eight tons of copper wires, a Makarov handgun and seven cartridges, a truck and three vehicles. In addition, authorities were able to solve a total of 68 cases of reported theft, specifically 39 in Aspropyrgos, 18 in Mandra and 11 in Megara, which reports add were related to the ring's activity.

Moscow Mayor to Slash Jobs To Migrant Workers To Help Fellow Russians!

Sergey Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow (credit: Wikipedia)

(RIA Novosti) – Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin plans to slash job opportunities for migrant workers in an effort to address the capital’s problematic relationship with migrant labor, a Russian newspaper reported Monday.

Sobyanin told city newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva that next year, authorities will cut by a third the number of jobs for migrant workers in the housing services and public utilities sector.

The mayor, a vocal advocate for tighter migration laws, said in the interview that migrant work should be eliminated where possible, but won’t disappear entirely.

     “The main task is to make this work legal, so that migrant labor won’t be cheaper for an employer than Russian labor,” Sobyanin was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “They must pay taxes to the same extent as nationals of our country. Otherwise, employers will look for loopholes to hire, for example, a Tajik, and not a Russian.”

Road cleaning, taxi services and markets are several areas where Moscow authorities are working to crack down on illegal labor and boost the number of Russian employees, Sobyanin said, according to Vechernyaya Moskva.

Police have shut down 30 Moscow markets in the last three years, which Sobyanin said brought about a reduction in crime, the newspaper reported. 

Thousands of migrants have been detained in the Russian capital in recent months as police targeted dozens of Moscow markets to round up illegal workers, a strategy apparently aimed at alleviating discontent over growing numbers of foreign workers in the city.

Migration was a key issue in September’s mayoral election in Moscow, in the run-up to which both Sobyanin and his leading opponent Alexei Navalny promised tough action against illegal migrants in response to the growing nationalist mood among voters.

Russia depends heavily on migrant laborers, mostly from former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, but public opinion about their effect on crime rates and employment opportunities has gotten more negative over the last decade, and large-scale anti-migrant violence has broken out in various parts of the country several times in recent years.

Sobyanin told Vechernyaya Moskva that the city has also legalized 30,000 taxi drivers, two-thirds of whom are migrants, and created street-cleaning task forces manned mainly by Russian citizens.

Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of Russia’s Federal Migration Service, also said Monday that the country’s system of allocating quotas for work permits for foreigners should be reformed, and that the FMS will propose new solutions to the migrant labor issue over the next year. 

The FMS estimates that about 3.5 million migrants are currently living in Russia illegally, though other analysts put the number far higher.

Bank of Greece To Shut Down Three Cooperative Banks

Logo of the National Bank of Greece (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Bank of Greece on Sunday announced that it has revoked the operating licences of three cooperative banks, namely those of Western Macedonia, the Dodecanese and Evia. Deposits in all three banks are fully guaranteed and the total deposits - amounting to 400 million euros - will be undertaken by Alpha Bank.

According to the central bank announcement, the decision was taken after deadlines given for the recapitalisation of the three banks expired without the necessary funds being raised, for the protection of the clients' deposits. The deposits were undertaken by Alpha Bank, following a successful bid in a bidding process conducted in accordance with the relevant 2007 legislation.

The three cooperative banks will be placed in special liquidation, the result of which will satisfy demands of third parties in the order set out by law, with the firm Ernst & Young (Hellas) Chartered Accountants SA appointed as liquidator. The funds deposited in interim accounts for the capital increase will be returned.

Alpha Bank, meanwhile, issued an announcement stressing that all the deposits it has undertaken are fully guaranteed and that it will exclusively assume the deposits and not any other assets and/or liabilities of the three banks.

Upon completion of the accounts' transfer process to its systems, Alpha Bank will notify their beneficiaries, as to the commencement date of their servicing through its branch network.

Alpha Bank also announced its intention to maintain a physical presence through its branches in certain remote areas where the cooperative banks have been operating, as well as plans to offer employment opportunities to the personnel of the three banks, following a selection process. (AMNA)