ENGLISH EDITION

The economic collapse that has been taking place in recent weeks has been unprecedented: thousands of overnight cancellations in AirBnB apartments, occupancy rates at Athens hotels at less than 20 percent, unprecedented cancellations in summer destinations, empty shopping malls, brakes drawn on trucks transporting industrial products and raw materials, large companies with a strategic role in the economy, such as Ae

"The next month will be very difficult" said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview with Proto Thema newspaper. "We will have an increase of the cases and of the serious cases, some people will lose their lives, we should know that " he underlined.

Τhe central bank's main goal is to prevent one of the biggest risks posed by the new turmoil to the global economy from the coronavirus epidemic: to find and healthy and sustainable businesses suffering liquidity problems, that may otherwise reduce their operations, or even shut down, due to the deteriorating conditions.

Shocks to the economy are growing and forecasts are being revised lower day by day, while gloomy scenarios for GDP foresee losses of up to 2 billion euros for this year. If the coronavirus continues to spread at the same rate in the next two months, the economic downturn will be massive.

The forecast drop in gross domestic product for 2020 ranges from 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent, in comparison with initial estimates for the year, according to analysts from Alpha Bank. According to the bank, this year's growth momentum, and especially the next quarter's, will be determined, by the duration of the Covid-19 epidemic and Greece's refugee crisis.

Mitsotakis will now seek a double reinforcement of Greece's position in Europe: On the one hand, he wants to invest in his shared understanding with Angela Merkel about the transition of the Greek economy to a phase of strong development, but also to try to bring Germany even closer to Greek positions on migration and Turkey's role in this.

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Greece has risen to 73, Health Ministry spokesperson and infectious diseases expert Prof. Sotiris Tsiodras said on Sunday. Six out of the seven new incidents are from the group of tourists that had visited the Holy Lands in Israel and people that came into contact with them in Greece.

"A diplomatic marathon has already been announced in the coming days and we are waiting to see how it develops. On Monday, the prime minister will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and on Tuesday with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Regarding refugee-migration, we are on the same grounds with Germany in order to proceed with a Dublin 4 review in August, not now, which will definitely have a burden-sharing mechanism."

«We are here to underscore our firm commitment to this project, to this port, to support American investment and also we are here to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Greece and the people of this region in a difficult time» the U.S. State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Matthew Palmer.

Construction company Ellator is facing growing challenges after talk of changes to its top management, and that of subsidiary Aktor, drove the stock more than 35 percent lower on the Athens bourse in the last few days. The company denies the speculation. Mid-session on Friday, shares were off some 5.5 percent on the Athens bourse trading at around 0.78 euros, after plummeting 20 percent on Thursday. This brings losses to some 65 percent since hitting a twelve month high of 2.25 euros in August.