For a first time since March, stock markets all over the world failed to make significant gains this week. The Dow Jones halted its recent period of growth, slipping just about 2.3%, closing at 8268.6 points. The S&P 500 shared a similar fate, dropping 3.3% and closing on Friday at 883.28 points. This was despite an announced 1 point rise in US consumer confidence. Across the ocean, the FTSE 100 followed suit, falling almost 2.5% this week to a 4341.7 close. In Athens, the general index also dropped, though only marginally, closing at 2146.15 points, losing 0.5% for the week.

The Greek government this week publicised a range of proposals to earn more revenue. It has said it may offer 5% of OTE presumably to Deutsche Telekom - as had been agreed in the original deal. The German company is not obliged to buy, however, and should that be the case, the government will seek out another investor. The deal would be worth 700 million euro. The government has already publicised its intention of selling 23% of the share capital of the Thessaloniki Water and Sewage company (ΕΥΑΘ). The government also holds 51% of the Parnitha Casino, and it is also expected to try and sell a portion of that. The owners of the remaining 49% - BC Partners – have the option of buying another 2%. This is all aimed at raising the funds necessary to avoid penalties by the European Commission due to an excessive budget deficit. In addition to that civil servants are demanding salary increases and more government aid for the state employees’ health care fund, threatening more crippling strikes like the one held on Thursday.

Real estate data continues to be gloomy with over 200,000 properties still on the market and unsought for. Property prices in Athens have slumped just over 12% year-on-year from March 2008. Thus, Athens joins metropolitan cities like London and New York, where property prices have been on a downward trend all year, and are facing year-on-year slumps of between 15-20%.  

In other news, the Cosmote mobile communications, a subsidiary of OTE, has agreed to acquire the Romanian mobile operator Zapp for approximately 200 million euro.