Macro
Another 57 projects worth €1.7 billion were included in Greece 2.0. The latest additions bring the total of projects in Greece’s recovery and resilience programme to 230, with a combined value of €10.2 billion.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s visit to the United Arab Emirates resulted in the signing of three MoUs between Greek and UAE companies on energy cooperation, as well as an extension of the partnership between the Hellenic Development Bank and Mubadala Investment Corporation, paving the way for up to €4 billion of inward investment.
The latest CPI reading of 10.2% for April, the highest since 1995, is an indication that the inflation rate of 5.6% recently forecast by the Greek authorities is conservative. Most analysts now see average inflation climbing above 6%.
Fitch Ratings warns that the energy crisis and the need to increase support spending will lead to a smaller reduction of the deficit this year. Total deficit is seen at 4.8% in 2022 and 3.1% in 2023.
Morgan Stanley sees Greece headed for investment grade, with growth of 3.2% this year and 2.5% in 2023, and average inflation of 6.3% and 1.6%, respectively. Rising yields and the indirect effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are seen as the biggest risks for the Greek economy.
DBRS Morningstar sees the impact of the war in Ukraine slowing growth to 3.1% from the original forecast of 4.5%. The agency views Greece’s commitment to fiscal discipline positively.
Energy
Bulgaria has been receiving 90,000-100,000 MWh of natural gas daily via Greece from the TAP pipeline and the Revithoussa LNG terminal. Flows through Revithoussa are expected to double in June, when the IGB pipeline is also expected to come onstream.
GasLog has been selected to provide the LNG tanker which will be used as additional floating storage at the Revithoussa terminal on a 12-month lease starting in July.
Work has started on the Santorini-Naxos interconnector which will join the islands to the mainland electricity grid. The 82.5-kilometre 150 kV cable will cost €105 million and is set to become operational in time for summer 2023.
Interest from foreign investors in the Greek RES sector is intensifying with Macquarie said to be in talks with GEK TERNA to acquire a share in TERNA Energy. TERNA Energy controls 5 GW of RES capacity which is valued at around €2.5 billion.
Motor Oil has signed MoUs with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) concerning supplies of LNG to Greece, and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) on offshore wind and other RES projects in Greece. Masdar also signed an MoU with Kyoto SA on onshore RES.
Viohalco and Cenergy Holdings are set to invest 70-100 million euros in production facilities for floating offshore wind turbines near Volos. The plant will be capable of building 120 floating turbines annually, producing all components, with the exception of blades.
The 2021-2027 round of ESPA funding is expected to distribute over €26 billion, with one of the first beneficiaries being the Just Transition programme with a budget of €1.6 billion for SMEs in the energy sector.
Digital
Power company PPC’s venture into the FTTH market is set to start with a pilot programme of 15,000 connections in the Peristeri district of Athens. PPC aims to hit 80% coverage of the population by 2025 with 1 Gbps speeds via its overhead cable network.
Grid Telecom, a subsidiary of IPTO/ADMIE, has signed an MoU with fibre specialist Cinturion for the development of subsea fibre connections using the company’s TEAS open access technology in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Europe.
Tourism
Traffic at Athens International Airport (AIA) from key markets surpassed 2019 levels in April. Scheduled flights from the U.S. were up by 60%, from the UK by 13%, from France by 11% and from Austria by 35%, while connections with Germany regained 2019 levels.
Piraeus Port is expecting around 750 cruise ships to dock in 2022, of which 66% will be homeporting. Virgin Cruises and Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will be among new operators using the port.
Privatisations
HRADF’s revised business plan was approved by the government’s Economic Policy Council, listing 27 privatisation projects including 10 ports, AIA, the Attica Highway, Hellenic Petroleum, DEPA, EYDAP and EYATH. In many cases alternative timelines and exploitation scenarios are being considered.
The sale of DEPA Commercial has been put on hold while HRADF reconsiders alternative scenarios in light of the energy crisis. The final stage in the South Kavala underground gas storage project has also been pushed back to the year end.
Banks
Piraeus Bank reported pre-tax profits of €542 million, €416 million from recurring operations. The net result was €521 million, from losses of €404 million in the first quarter of last year. NPEs stood at €4.7 billion.
Greek banks face three main challenges according to the Bank of Greece’s latest financial stability report: The stock of NPEs that despite recent progress still weighs on banks, the rise of organic profitability, and the improvement of regulatory capital.
The Bank of Greece (BoG) warns that banks need to be on alert about the prospect of bad loans that could result from the prolonged geopolitical crisis, while also highlighting the high interdependency between banks and state through GGBs, loans guaranteed by the state, and deferred taxation.
According to the latest AnaCredit datasets released by the BoG, new loans to companies in the first quarter reached €1 billion, with €544 million directed to SMEs.
Stock Market
The ASE general index held on to its value with marginal gains of 0.03% on the week, closing Friday at 867.03 points. Losses earlier in the week were reversed by a 2.43% daily gain on Friday when it was announced that NBG and Mytilineos were to be added to the MSCI Greece Index in June.
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