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It seems that international stock exchanges have corrected their growths from the beginning of the year, because for a second consecutive week the main indexes recorded losses. This week Dow Jones closed with 9487.7 points – loss of 2.2%. Nasdaq closed with 2047.8 points and with a loss of 3%. S&P 500 also closed the week with a loss – 2.4% or 1025 points. The London FTSE 100 also lost about 2.5%, closing with 4995.7 points. The Japanese Nikkei 225 lost 3.5% this week and closed on Friday with 9731.8 points. The Athenian stock exchange closed with 2593.4 points or a loss of 0.6%. the attention of western analyzers will turn to the way the stock exchange will answer to the Sunday election results.

The elections were won by PASOK after the ‘campaign for economy realism of Karamanlis did not manage to win against the big promises of Georgios Papandreou,’ as wrote British newspaper Times. It is still unclear how PASOK is planning to pay off the promises, continued the newspaper. Reuters also stressed on the fact that Greece is suffering low incomes, high budget deficit, and the lowest credit rating in the EU.

One of the leading credit rating agencies, Moody’s announced they will closely follow the first steps of the government and especially the fiscal responsibility. Greece has a deadline until November to submit a 2010 budget and many western financial experts are curious to see how Papandreou plans to finance his plans, like the one to increase salaries. According to statements by party members, PASOK depends on the government to collect €6 out of €31 billion from owed taxes.

One good news from the corrections of the global stock exchanges is that the petrol price keeps moving within $68 and $69. This is partially thanks to the data that unemployment in the US hit a 26 year record of 9.8%. also this week Russia announced that it has started producing over 10 million barrels of petrol per day and so it is now the biggest independent producer in the world.