ECONOMY

In Brief

PPC workers suspend today’s planned strike Workers at Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greece’s biggest electricity producer, suspended a 24-hour strike scheduled for today after the company’s management board postponed a meeting. The board delayed the meeting as the country declared four days of mourning for the death yesterday of the country’s church leader, Archbishop Christodoulos. «The strike will take place on the day of a new management board meeting,» union GENOP said in a statement. PPC’s board was scheduled to decide today on building a power plant with Germany’s RWE AG. The company had delayed taking a decision on the matter last month after workers stormed a board meeting to protest possible job cuts connected with the move. (Bloomberg) Romtelecom to fire up to 2,500 employees Romtelecom, Romania’s former telephone monopoly, said yesterday it will fire as many as 2,500 of its fewer than 13,000 employees this year to improve efficiency. Romtelecom, a unit of Greece’s OTE, said in an e-mailed note it will carry out the cuts to lower costs as its fixed-line business wanes. «For 2008, Romtelecom’s strategy is aiming to improve efficiency and ensure for the company the basis for solid future growth,» the company said. «The new business plan will require the redesign of workflows and work methodologies, resulting in job reductions which will not exceed 2,500 positions.» Romtelecom also said it quadrupled its broadband Internet connection sales in the last quarter of 2007 from a year earlier and boosted its pay-television subscriber base to 8 percent of the Romanian market. (Bloomberg) Cyprus growth Cyprus expects economic growth of around 4.0 percent in 2008, lower than provisional growth estimates for 2007 of 4.4 percent, its finance minister said yesterday. «I would say we will be close, possibly on the downside, of 4.0 percent,» Michael Sarris said. «But we will be very close to 4.0 percent.» Asked whether Cyprus was planning to revise growth forecasts lower for 2008, Sarris said: «No. We have previously said the achievements of 2007 were impressive, and that the prognosis for 2008 was based on a more level rate of growth.» (Reuters) Albanian power plants Austrian utility EVN has won an international tender to build three hydroelectric power stations in Albania, the company said. Albanian news agency ATA said last week the investment in the power plants would be about 900 million euros. The power stations on the Devoll River are due to have a capacity of 400 megawatts and generate around 1,000 gigawatt hours annually, the company added. (Reuters) Turkey energy pricing Turkey may liberalize energy sector prices on July 1 rather than end-March as had been earlier planned, energy officials said yesterday. A draft text of the reform, which aims to remove political interference in energy price decisions and leave it to markets, was still being negotiated. (Reuters)

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