The two-tiered office market in Athens Business File, June-July-August 2017, No. 111 Real Estate The office market in Athens, at its lowest point in ten years, is now expecting the kick off in demand for Grade A office space, while rents in secondary locations are facing additional reductions. With business activity expected to slowly start its rebound phase after years of drops, things could start looking better for owners of office properties in Athens. In a market where rents have dropped [...]

Port of Thessaloniki: A gateway and transport hub for the country, for the Balkans and the wider SE European region Business File, June-July-August 2017, No. 111 Infrastructure/Ports The port of Thessaloniki is already added to the list of major foreign investors in Greece’s maritime assets. e new list of port privatisations includes, among others, the ports of Alexandroupolis (gas hub), Kavala, Elefsina, Iraklion. The world’s third largest container shipping company has become an owner of the concession to run the port [...]

Real Estate: A key factor for Greek banks’ liquidity efforts Business File, January-February-March 2017, No. 109 Banking With NPLs equal to 45% of the whole value of their loan portfolios, Greek banks intensify their efforts to minimise their losses. Greek banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs) have become like a “noose in the neck” for the health of their balance sheets, threatening to throw away three consecutive recapitalisation efforts over the course of the past years. It’s a critical effort, as according [...]

Change of the negative situation: most urgent but not probable in the years to come Business File, January-February-March 2017, No. 109 Politics Tassos Giannitsis and Stavros Zografakis focus on inequalities, poverty, economic disarray in the years of crisis and keep low expectations for the reversal of the present situation in the near future. Our analysis allowed us to obtain an extensive view on the ways through which the crisis affected the economic, social and political structures in Greece, at both macro- and [...]

The economic crisis and the retardants of growth in Greece Business File, April-May 2017, No. 110 Politics Unemployment is rising, social inequality is widening, and prudent governance is being prevented. Even when some temporary economic growth is achieved, it is accompanied by high jobless rate. Any attempt to change, reform and adjust society fails because of the strong resistance of the Retardants of Growth until the inevitable occurs for both the economy and society. ese special interest groups are detrimental [...]

Shipping in the sights of Brussels Business File, April-May 2017, No. 110 Interview Panos Laskaridis, President elect of ECSA, guides us through the maze of the European debate. The Commission has opened a preliminary enquiry on Greece about the taxation regime of shipping. At present, the expecta- tion is that a satisfactory consensus solution may be reached. A recurrent issue in the Greek public debate is the taxation regime of shipping, which has recently taken a European turn by the Commission opening a preliminary enquiry [...]

"Building bridges with other nations and societies" Business File, April-May 2017, No. 110 Interview James Stavridis’ role both in the military and diplomacy required for international a airs means he is a proponent of “smart power”, defined as the “balance of hard and soft power taken together.” Stavridis has encouraged the creation of security through the “need to connect international, inter-agency and public-private actors to build security, lining all of them with efective strategic communications.” This underlying philosophy gives him [...]

Hopeful signs for ship financing from EU banks The international and EU framework on capital requirements for ships has an impact on the cost of their nancing. In the a ermath of the 2008 nancial crisis ship lending from banks has become more costly and scarce at international and EU level. Bank lending is subject to the Basel III Accord on capital requirements, which is under review. However, if the current Basel IV proposals materialise, European banks may lose their shipping clients. Shipowners may [...]