HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: US Treasuries remained under pressure in early European trade on Friday with the 10-yr paper rising c. 13bps in yield terms so far this week mainly on the back of higher oil prices and mounting optimism over the US growth prospects. Supported by higher US Treasury yields, the US dollar index was standing not far from Wednesday’s 2018 peak and around 1% firmer on a weekly basis. In Italy, the government programme for a coalition government consisting of the M5S and the League that was approved by the two party leaders, has raised fears over possible violations of the EU budget deficit ceiling and high tensions with Brussels.
GREECE: According to press reports the Greek government and the institutions agreed yesterday the amendments to the household insolvency law (Law 3869/2010) in order to filter out non-admissible petitions and speed up the processing of cases. An official from the Ministry of Finance has reportedly stated that a staff level agreement (SLA) will likely be reached this weekend and then be ratified at the 24 May Eurogroup. As regards the IMF, its Communications Director Gerry Rice stated yesterday at a press briefing that if an agreement is reached very soon the IMF Board could make financing available to Greece adding that good progress has been made on policies but debt relief is the issue that still remains to be resolved.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
CYPRUS: The positive momentum of the tourism sector continued in the fourth month of 2018. Tourist arrivals expanded by 9.7% YoY in the month of April 2018 to 314.1 thousand, up from 286.3 thousand in same month a year earlier (April 2017). The month of April 2018 was the thirty fourth consecutive month with a positive rate of increase on an annual basis. This sets a new record as it was the highest volume of tourist arrivals ever recorded in Cyprus during April.
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