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A mission of the International Monetary Fund arrives in Athens on Wednesday, April 7^th. According to the official announcement the mission comes to provide “technical support” for the collection of taxes and the government of the national budget of Greece. The board of directors of the Fund was in session yesterday especially to review the condition of the Greek economy. In spite of the statement of the spokesman of the organization Gerry Rice that Greece has not yet requested official assistance from the IMF, the interest in the economically problematic country is indicative. Another joint mission of the IMF and the European Commission is expected to arrive in Athens in the beginning of May in order to prepare the report on the progress in the Program for stability which has to be announced on May 16^th.

“If Greece turns to us, we will help it, however this following our requirements and our program”, stated during the week the executive director of the Fund Dominic Stross – Kan. After the yesterday session of the board of directors in Washington members of the board rushed to say that there will be no need for the IMF to save Greece and that it will manage on its own to solve its financial problems.

Meanwhile the spread index of the Greek government bonds ended the Holly week at 352 points and returned to its previous level before the triumph announced support for Greece by the countries members of the euro zone. The government of George Papandreou is not hiding its disappointment from the reaction of the markets to the vague support which some separate countries from the euro zone will provide to Greece on a bilateral basis with the just as vague cooperation of the IMF.

The entire unfavorable picture of the Greek economy which reforms are still nowhere and the two issues of government bonds with 7 and 20 years maturity , which were accepted in a very reserved way by the markets, as well as the annual reports of the big Greek banks and companies which register a decrease in the profits reflected also on the transactions at the Athens stock exchange. Its index ended the week registering a decrease of 2,46 percent and since the beginning of the year the decrease in the index is 4,61 percent. An increase in the value of the shares are only registering the insurance companies and it is quite substantial – 13,72 percent. On the contrary the greatest decrease have the bank shares which decreased in price by 4,82 percent, the financial corporations – by 3,34 percent and the industrial enterprises – by 3,26 percent.

After earlier this week the agency Moody’s decreased the credit ratings of the four biggest banks in Greece – the National bank of Greece, Eurobank EFG, Alpha Bank, Pireus and Emporiki, the Greek government decided to reinforce their liquidity. The ministry of finance unfroze the rest of the 15,5 billion euro from the announced 2 years ago package of 28 billion euro government subsidies for the Greek banking system. The National bank of Greece, Eurobank EFG, Alpha Bank and Pireus have applied right away for participation in the government subsidy. In this way the banks will have liquidity and will be able to grant credits for business purposes and only at the second place will be the credits for private purposes.