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Tuesday, 16 April 2024
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Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-08-14Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Greece celebrates Dormition holidayThe annual Dormition of the Theotokos (Assumption of the Virgin) religious holiday in the predominately Orthodox Christian nation, one of the most significant on the ecclesiastical calendar and the unofficial culmination of the summer vacation season in Greece, will be celebrated on August 15 marking the height of summer with a mass exodus of holidaymakers.In keeping with tradition, most of the countryâs top political leadership will attend church services at a handful of revered cathedrals dedicated to the Theotokos, most notably on the Cyclades island of Tinos and at the Panaghia Soumela Monastery in central Macedonia (Imathia prefecture). [02] PASOK reactions on fuel price ceilingMain opposition PASOK spokesman on development issues Mihalis Chryssohoidis said on the imposition of a fuel price ceiling on islands' gas stations now that the summer vacations are coming to an end indicate the government's lack of policy that has turned it into a passive observer of the dramatic developments in the field of prices and antagonism"."PASOK has urged the government over the past months to implement measures to combat profiteering without getting a response. Now it's too late because the fuel prices in Greece have gone beyond unjustifiable high levels and not on the islands alone", Chryssohoidis added. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of PASOK's headquarters. [03] State budget's performanceThe state budget's net revenues increased by 4.3 percent during the first six months in 2008, as against an annual target of 13 percent.The budget's first stage expenditures increased over the same period by 11.6 percent, contrasting with an annual goal of 8.3 percent. Interest expenditures decreased by 8.6 percent, while the annual aim is to have them increase by 7.2 percent and the budget's total expenditures increased by 6.7 percent, with the annual target being an increase of 8.1 percent. The data was publicised by the Finance ministry on Thursday, regarding the implementation of the budget over the first half of the year. Consequently, the budget deficit reached 8,624 million euros over this period, increasing by 34.9 percent, with the annual target being an increase of 11.8 percent (to 8,306 million euros). [04] Government spokesmanThe Government's alternative spokesman Evangelos Antonaros stressed on Thursday that the Development Minister's decision to set a ceiling price on fuel price on some islands' gas stations reveals the government's volition to show in practice that it stands by the side and supports the consumers."We are determined to crack down on any illicit practice. Free market does not mean a lawless market", said Antonaros. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros. [05] KKE, Coalition on fuelThe Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (Synaspismos) criticised the fuel price ceiling announced by the government on Thursday and questioned its effectiveness.KKE said in its announcement that "the ceiling that the government has decided to impose temporarily on fuel prices in certain regions will have no substantive outcome and all that is being said is deception. Measures of such a kind do not limit in the least the extensive looting of popular income that is being jointly perpetrated, through high fuel prices, by the government and the monopolies that control the importing, refining and the wholesale trade of fuel" and called for the abolition of fuel taxes and the establishment of a unified and exclusively public energy agency. The Coalition said on its part that the measures were announced with a delay and shortly before the end of the peak tourist season and pointed out that "first of all, the ceiling is quite high. Secondly, it should have been imposed at all the levels of fuel trade and not only in the stage of final consumption. The handling of profiteering in fuel is achieved with the enactment of measures against the logic of price deregulation, as well as with measures that deal a blow at the cartels in the fuel trade sector." Caption:ANA-MPA file photo of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Aleka Papariga. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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