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Thessaloniki calling [InTime News]
Welcome to the weekly round-up of news by Kathimerini English Edition. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave his annual address and set out his newly mandated government’s priorities at the Thessaloniki International Fair this weekend, after it was postponed last week due to the fallout from Storm Daniel. The prime minister’s keynote speech on Saturday night came after a very difficult summer for the government. One of destructive wildfires, flooding, and incidents of shocking violence. Kathimerini’s government correspondent Stavros Papantoniou noted that, beyond the many measures announced by the prime minister including raises for public sector workers and a new framework for natural disasters, the essence of his speech can be boiled down to three key takeaways. Primarily, the speech sought to serve as a signal for a complete restart for his government, as the many difficulties of the last three months brought the momentum stemming from the resounding electoral victory in July to a screeching halt. Secondly, Mitsotakis addressed criticisms that the state and his government failed to adequately prepare and react to the scale of devastation, stating that there was confusion between the public agencies as to their responsibilities and remits. “Whatever we lost, as a state and as citizens, we will build back better”, he promised. Finally, the prime minister used the podium to state that his New Democracy party is the best guarantor of bringing to term the necessary reforms, highlighting the country’s promising economic performance in recent months. The opposition parties attacked the speech, with both main opposition SYRIZA and center-left PASOK stressing that Mitsotakis is now in his fifth year as prime minister and that his promises of reforms ring hollow. SYRIZA also attacked Mitsotakis for failing to properly acknowledge the responsibility of his own government for the ongoing situation in the flooded areas of Thessaly. On Sunday, Mitsotakis doubled down and stressed that his government, the so-called ‘executive state’, did not fail in its duty and mounted an effective response to the situation, with the prime minister ruling out any potential reshuffling of his ministerial cabinet. Spotlight
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OPINION
 [InTime News]On Wednesday Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this time in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The two leaders, getting together just two months after their last meeting in Vilnius, are expected to build on the positive atmosphere prevailing during most of this year, despite some rhetoric outbursts by the Turkish leader during his campaign for the May elections. The process, which included a recent substantive meeting between the two foreign ministers in Ankara, aims at cementing the foundations of the effort that began with the active involvement of the US and Germany. The next steps: agreeing on the issues of territorial waters and airspace and referring the delimitation of the continental shelf and the resulting exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Athens has made clear that the sovereignty of its islands and raising claims around so-called grey zones, issues that Ankara keeps putting on the table, cannot be the subject of negotiations. Mitsotakis and Erdogan will direct their diplomatic teams to continue the work, with the next act in the process being a meeting between the deputy foreign ministers in October. At the same time the two leaders will agree on extending the present moratorium in the Aegean, outlined in the Papoulias-Yilmaz memorandum of 1987, until the end of the year, thus avoiding any unnecessary frictions that could derail the effort. Calm waters and no tension in the skies for an extended period are necessary preconditions for the whole effort to have any chance to succeed. |
| CHART OF THE WEEK |
 The second quarter of 2023 saw residential property sale prices continue to climb at a blistering pace, fueled by high demand and an ever-shrinking supply, making it a seller’s market, particularly for homes in prime locations. The data also reveals that the rise in asking prices for older homes has outstripped that for new homes for the third consecutive quarter, illustrating the latter’s lack of supply. A report by the Bank of Greece notes that while it expects an annual delivery of 30,000 new properties (up from just 10,000 between 2013-2017), this will not be enough to cover market demand which it estimates will be at least 35,000 annually. |
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| ECONOMY IN A NUTSHELL |
| “The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,258.58 points on Friday, down 0.07% from last week. A strong final session on the day saw the benchmark grow by more than 2%, offsetting most of the week’s losses.” |
| “Credit rating agency Moody’s upgraded Greece’s investment rating by two levels (from Ba3 to Ba1 with a stable outlook) but stopped shy of returning Greek bonds to investment grade. The decision comes a week after DBRS Morningstar upgraded its rating of Greece to investment grade.” |
| “The destructive flooding in Thessaly has led to further increases in food prices, exacerbating food inflation in Greece. Already at extremely high levels, several products saw significant price hikes over the last week, with some as much as doubling.” |
| WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA |
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Editor's Pick The incident is indicative of the fact that things in Greece tend not to change until disaster strikes and lives are lost.Elias MaglinisRead the article |
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