Greek stocks ended lower in the Athens Stock Exchange on Friday, pushing the general index of the market near the 870-point level. The index fell 0.61 pct to end at 873.21 points, for a net loss of 3.15 pct in the week. The index is up 42.38 pct so far this year.

The Large Cap index eased 0.63 pct and the Mid Cap index fell 0.66 pct. Turnover was 52.435 million euros in volume of 20,731,966 shares. Titan (1.09 pct), GEK Terna (0.73 pct) and Coca Cola HBC (0.34 pct) scored big gains among blue chip stocks while Ellaktor (4.50 pct), Sarantis (2.58 pct) and Jumbo (2.23 pct) suffered losses. Among market sectors, Raw Materials (1.70 pct) and Commerce (0.69 pct) moved up, while Personal Products (2.05 pct) and Telecoms (1.41 pct) moved down.

Eurobank and Lamda Development were the most heavily traded securities of the day. Broadly, decliners led advancers by 70 to 38 with another 23 issues unchanged. Progressive- (11.76 pct) and Tzirakian (8.47 pct) were top gainers, while F.G. Europe (29.74 pct) and CPI (9.41 pct) were top losers.

Greek bond market closing report

Greek state bond prices rose slightly and yields eased in the domestic electronic secondary bond market on Friday. The 10-year bond yield fell to 1.50 pct from 1.538 pct on Thursday, with the five-year bond yield easing to 0.62 pct from 0.645 pct, respectively. The yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bond eased to 1.80 pct from 1.81 pct the previous day, with the German Bund yielding 0.30 pct. Turnover was 11 million euros, all buy orders.

In interbank markets, interest rates were largely unchanged. The 12-month rate was -0.272 pct, the six-month rate was -0.342 pct, the three-month rate was -0.403 pct and the one-month rate was -0.438 pct.

FINANCIAL NEWS

**** The Greek trade deficit fell 5.4 pct in October with both exports and imports falling in the month, Hellenic Statistical Authority said in a report on mercantile trade on Friday.

The statistics service said that the value of imports-arrivals totaled 4.832 billion euros in October, down 7.6 pct from October 2018 (excluding oil products, imports rose 1.8 pct, while excluding oil products and ships, imports rose 1.9 pct). The value of exports-deliveries totaled 2.865 billion euros, down 9.1 pct from October 2018 (excluding oil products, exports rose 3.1 pct, while excluding oil products and ships, exports increased 3.0 pct).

The country’s trade deficit totaled 1.967 billion euros in October, down 5.4 pct from October 2018 (excluding oil products, it rose 0.1 pct, while excluding oil products and ships, it was up 0.6 pct).

In the 10-month period from January to October, the value of imports totaled 46.656 billion euros, up 3.0 pct from the corresponding period last year (excluding oil products, imports rose 6.9 pct, while excluding oil products and ships, imports rose 6.4 pct). The value of exports totaled 28.160 billon euros in the 10-month period, up 1.2 pct from 2018 (excluding oil products, exports rose 4.9 pct, while excluding oil products and ships, exports rose 5.3 pct).

The trade deficit was 18.496 billion euros in the January-October period, up 5.9 pct from 2018 (excluding oil products, the trade deficit was 9.5 pct up, while excluding oil products and ships, the trade deficit grew 7.8 pct).

**** State arrears to the private sector fell to 1.629 billion euros in October from 1.637 billion in September, the finance ministry said on Friday. The report also said that pending tax returns eased to 828 million euros in October from 874 million in the previous month.

**** The Greek economy grew by 2.3 pct in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018, while Greek GDP grew 0.6 pct compared with the second quarter of 2019, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said in provisional figures released on Thursday.

More specifically, the 2.3 pct growth rate reflected a 0.5 pct increase in final consumption spending (household consumption rose 0.2 pct while general government consumption eased 0.5 pct), private investments (gross fixed capital investments) rose 2.0 pct, exports of goods and services rose 9.5 pct (exports of goods increased 6.2 pct and exports of services jumped 14.5 pct), while imports of goods and services fell 2.9 pct (imports of goods fell 4.9 pct and imports of services rose 8.6 pct).

On a quarterly basis, final consumption spending eased 0.4 pct compared with the second quarter of 2019 (household consumption rose 0.4 pct and general government consumption fell 6.9 pct), private investments fell 5.0 pct, exports of goods and services rose 4.5 pct (exports of goods were up 2.4 pct and exports of services rose 6.7 pct), while imports of goods and services edged 0.6 pct up (imports of goods fell 1.0 pct and imports of services rose 8.1 pct).

The statistics service revised upwards its estimate for GDP growth in the first and second quarter (up 1.4 pct and 2.8 pct, respectively). The state budget envisages a growth rate of 2.0 pct this year and 2.8 pct in 2020. Based on non-seasonally corrected data, Greek GDP grew 2.7 pct in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018.

**** The tax-to-GDP ratio in Greece eased slightly in 2018 but remained significantly higher than the OECD member-states’ average, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its Revenue Statistics 1965-2018 report released on Thursday.

The Paris-based organisation said that the tax-to-GDP ratio eased to 38.7 pct from 38.9 pct in 2017 and 38.7 pct in 2016, while in the OECD the tax-to-GDP ratio edged up to 34.3 pct in 2018 from 34.2 pct in 2017. Greece and Slovakia were the two OECD member-states to record the highest increase in tax revenue in the 2008-2018 period. In Greece, the ratio grew by 6.9 percentage points from 31.8 pct in 2007. The OECD report showed that structure of tax revenue in Greece, depending on the source, differed greatly to the OECD average. The main source of tax revenue in Greece in 2018 was tax on goods and services (VAT and other taxes), representing 15.1 pct of GDP, followed by social insurance contributions (11.6 pct of GDP), income and capital taxes (8.9 pct of GDP) and property taxes (3.1 pct of GDP). On the other hand, the main source of revenue in the OECD on average was income and capital taxes (11.6 pct of GDP), followed by tax on goods and services (10.9 pct of GDP), social insurance contributions (9.1 pct) and property tax (1.9 pct of GDP).

Greece, along with Germany, Hungary, Japan and Poland are the only member-states where social insurance contributions accounted for more than 15 pct of total tax revenue, after Slovakia (20.8 pct). Greece is also among the seven OECD member-states where the majority of social contributions came from workers, while in most other states the majority of social insurance contributions came from employers.

**** A total of 34 CEOs from Greece – members of CSR Hellas – are participating in the largest initiative designed to support a sustainable future ever made at European level by the private sector.

More than 370 CEOs from around Europe declared they are ready to act jointly towards a sustainable Europe by 2030, while 149 European agencies are pushing for a new ambitious business strategy in Europe as EU bodies seem ready to adopt a “green” approach throughout their operations.

In an announcement, CSR Europe said it will hold a meeting in 2020, bringing together all policy makers and representatives from the business community and agencies to seek and recommend solutions leading to a strengthening of the competitivess of European enterprises at national, European and international level. The CEOs also declared they were prepared to act to accelerate sustainable growth, to deal with climate change and to create prosperity without exclusions.

CSR Europe also plans to present an invitation for action towards a sustainable Europe by 2030 to the new heads of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.

**** The economic footprint of the industrial regions of Greece totals 17.5 billion euros in terms of annual gross production value, while the total impact of business activity in the industrial regions on the country’s GDP reaches 9.7 billion euros, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) said in a survey on Wednesday.

The survey presented a detailed analysis of the direct impact of activity within industrial regions on the Greek economy and subsequent impact of these activities. For each euro of added value produced by companies operating in industrial regions, the added value for the Greek economy grows by three euros, while the total contribution of productive units in industrial regions on employment, direct and indirect, reaches 236,000 job positions, or more than 5.9 pct of employment in the country.

Business activity in industrial regions also contributes directly to public revenue, with taxes and social insurance contributions worth 770 million euros, while total impact on public revenue reached 2.6 billion euros, IOBE said.

Nikos Vettas, managing director in IOBE and a professor in the Economics University of Athens, analysed the importance of the industrial sector on the Greek economy. He said that despite having a positive impact on wider economic activity, characterised by a high investment per worker and offering high-value jobs, its relative size is small and it significantly lags behind the European average at a time when industrial growth is a strategic goal of European policy. This gap should be covered the soonest possible and given the problems with licensing procedures, the role of organised industrial regions for infrastructure is crucial, Vettas said.