Greek economic sentiment softened to a two-and-a-half-year low in June, hurt by weak consumer confidence and a downturn in the business outlook of most sectors except services, the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) said yesterday. Greece’s economic climate index slipped to 92.2 points from 92.3 in May. June’s reading was steadier month-on-month compared to the eurozone but remained below the respective benchmarks for both the EU and the eurozone, which came in at 94.6 and 94.9 respectively. The overall index is based on business expectations subindices covering industry, construction, retail trade, services and consumer confidence. In the same month a year ago, the Greek economic climate index stood at 108.1 points. (Reuters)

Greece’s largest toy retailer Jumbo is confident it will meet its fiscal 2008 profit target despite high costs from soaring oil prices and ongoing strikes at Greek ports, its chief executive said yesterday. “After our sales performance, we are quite confident there will be no surprises to given (earnings) guidance,” Jumbo’s CEO Tolis Vakakis told Reuters in a telephone interview. Last week, Jumbo, which also sells stationery and home items, announced a 17.9 percent rise in 12-month sales to end-June to 404 million euros ($630 million), in line with forecasts, thanks to an expanding store network. The firm is targeting net profit growth of 21.4 percent for its fiscal year that ended in June. Last year it reported net profit of 67.9 million euros. Vakakis said Jumbo, which imports the bulk of its merchandise from China, was reworking the makeup of its goods in a bid to offset higher costs and deal with ongoing port strikes. (Reuters)

More than a fifth of payments made last year by the European Union from funds to help its poorer regions were late, with an average delay of almost seven weeks, EU Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros said yesterday. The European Commission should “make further improvements to its payment policy as quickly as possible, especially regarding more vulnerable contractors, such as individual citizens and small and medium-sized companies and organizations,” Diamandouros said in an annual report. The report from the head of the EU’s internal watchdog said that in 2007, the Commission was late in 22 percent of payments it made from the bloc’s budget, which amounted to more than 110 billion euro ($172.1 billion). (Reuters)

Romania’s average net wages jumped 23.3 percent on the year in nominal terms in May to 1,248 lei ($543), but inched down 2.7 percent on the month, data from the National Statistics Board showed yesterday. Wages in Romania have been rising fast in recent years as the economy grows robustly and labor force shortages boost wage demands. The central bank, which sees wage growth as a key risk to inflation, given that much of economic growth is driven by domestic demand, has repeatedly urged the centrist government to tighten fiscal and wage policies and to improve productivity. While the government has pledged to cap wage growth in the public sector to around 10 percent this year, trade unions are demanding a rise in the minimum wage. (Reuters)