The interest rate disappointed local economic analysts that hoped its value to remain bellow the psychological barrier of 4%, Fitch is also disappointed and lowered the credit rating of five major banks.

Control parliamentary committee judgements on the Siemens case are expected at the end of the week. The report of more than 1000 pages will be divided into chapters presenting the different sides of the scandal. It will contain proposals to no repetition of such cases and will disclose the names of politicians involved.

The government unexpectedly announced the last week that it intends to allow duty free petrol stations in the border areas of Kakavia, Evro and Evzoni to resume work after they had been closed for five years. The owners of petrol stations in these regions reacted strongly and threatened to block border exits to Turkey, Macedonia and Albania if the Ministry implements its intentions.

The Minister of Citizen Protection Cristos Papoutsis prohibited all police services to transfer information before the completion of campaigns and investigations and collating data. The ban followed the police press service blunder of naming the mother of the 27 year-old German girl captured last Friday a member of RAF.