In Brief
Airlines dismiss reduction of airport charges as insignificant Aegean Cronus, Greece’s largest privately run airline consortium – now in its final stages of merger – yesterday slammed the recently announced reduction in charges to airlines by the Athens International Airport (AIA). The reduction affects a very small number of flights, involving aircraft weighing more than 120 tons (Airbus 740, Boeing 747 and 777), said a statement. According to our data, the measure affects only 74 landings out of a total of 1,277 a week. Regarding (aircraft) parking charges, the effects of the measure is only 0.2 percent less for the consortium – the airport’s second biggest user – which paid 2.5 billion drachmas in the first half of the year, said the statement. According to estimates, Olympic Airways, AIA’s biggest user, will have a benefit of no more than 800 million drachmas annually, when the total cost of services received is 28 billion drachmas. Turkish trade deficit drops 60.1 pct Turkey’s trade deficit dropped by 60.1 percent to $6.74 billion in the first eight months of the year from the figure for same period last year, the state statistics institute announced yesterday. The trade deficit in the first eight months of 2000 was $16.89 billion. The institute said that imports fell by 22.5 percent to $27.14 billion in January-August this year, while exports rose by 12.5 percent to $20.39 billion. In August 2001, imports decreased by 30.6 percent to $3.38 billion, compared to August last year and exports were up 26 percent to $2.57 billion, it added. Turkey’s trade deficit had hit $26.7 billion in 2000, a 89.1-percent rise from the previous year. (AFP) Credit expansion lower. Greek credit expansion slowed to 18.2 percent year-on-year in August from 19.7 percent in July, the Bank of Greece said in its October bulletin released yesterday. The central bank said credit expansion to business and households slowed to 24.7 percent in August year-on-year from 27.4 percent in the previous month. Credit to the government grew at a slower 14.3 percent, versus 15.3 percent in July. The central bank said total credit expanded by 11.6 billion euros in August, of which 8.7 billion went to businesses and households. (Reuters) Car sales fell January-October. Car sales fell 2.8 percent to 248,900 in the January-October period this year from 256,000 in the same period of 2000, according to the Car Importers and Dealers Association. But in October sales of private cars and taxis improved by 11 percent to 20,450. In the 10 months, Opel topped the sales list with 26,274, while Hyundai sold 23,200, Fiat 20,980, Toyota 20,600, Volkswagen 17,400, Citroen 16,940, Seat 16,184, Peugeot 14,836, Renault 13,000 and Nissan 10,630. PPC bourse listing. The Public Power Corporation will submit its application for listing on the Athens bourse in the next 10 days, in an effort to stick to the original schedule for listing within December, sources said yesterday. DRY CARGO
