Greece’s retail sales by volume displayed a weak rebound in March with a 0.5 percent rise year-on-year after a 4.3 percent annual fall in February, an indication that consumer spending is softening. Retail sales by revenues rose 4.5 percent year-on-year in March after a 0.8 percent drop in the previous month, data by the National Statistics Service (NSS) showed yesterday. “Consumer spending looks like it is rebounding after a significant fall in the previous month, with consumer goods and primarily food being the main contributors,” said National Bank’s Nikos Magginas. (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish TAV Airports Holding has sought pre-qualification details on a build-operate-transfer tender for airports at Skojpe and Ohrid in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the company said yesterday. TAV also said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange it had sought pre-qualification details for the construction of a cargo airport at Stip in FYROM. The tenders were launched by FYROM’s Transport Ministry.

Cypriot authorities have found a carcinogen in unprocessed milk from contaminated animal feed which had not entered the food chain, the island-republic’s Agriculture Ministry said yesterday. Random sample testing showed aflatoxin M1 in milk above acceptable levels, the ministry said. “It has been established that the small quantities which tested positive to aflatoxin M1 have not gone into the production of other products,” it said in a statement. Aflatoxins are a toxic fungus and are a carcinogen, which is ingested by cows in contaminated feed and excreted in their milk. (Reuters)

Turkey can meet its share of investments in the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline to bring Caspian gas to Europe despite a sharp rise in expected costs, Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said yesterday. The consortium planning to build and run the pipeline said on Thursday the expected cost of the project had jumped to 7.9 billion euros ($12.3 billion) from 4.6 billion. (Reuters)

Natural gas is expected to resume flowing from Iran to Turkey by this morning after taps were turned off earlier in the week, a high-level official at pipeline company Botas told Reuters yesterday. Turkish officials stopped the import of gas from Iran, Turkey’s second-largest supplier, following an explosion on the pipeline earlier this week. (Reuters)

Thessaloniki rose 24 places to 67th in the list of the 100 most popular conference destinations worldwide in 2007, according to the annual report of the International Congress and Conference Association (ICCA).