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Southeast Europe
January 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
round of talks. These include Republic of New Macedonia, Republic of Northern Macedonia, Republic of Upper Macedonia, Republic of Vardar Macedonia, and Republic of Macedonia (Skopje).
However, at the weekend tens of thousands of Greek citizens held a mass protest in Thessaloniki against the use of the name Macedonia by its
northern neighbour. They say any solution should involve the country being completely renamed. Another protest is planned in Athens on February 4, according to Greek Reporter.
However, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said that the protest would not affect ongoing nego- tiations to find a solution to the name dispute.
Share of NPLs falls in EU but still at high levels in SEE
bne IntelliNews
The total volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the European Union continued its steady de- cline in 2017, but its total volume remained high at €950bn, a progress report by the European Commission showed.
High NPL levels have been a severe problem in both Central and particularly Southeast Europe since the global financial crisis, weakening banks’ capital strength and hindering them from extend- ing new credits. Ratios have now been falling for
three years, though NPLs are still between 10- 20% in six of the 17 countries in the two regions.
In November, the Vienna Initiative also noted that the burden of NPLs in Central and Southeastern Europe has continued to decline and should con- tinue to do so for the next six months.
The EU report assesses the progress of member states in decreasing the level of NPLs. Within the EU, it is improving constantly and declined by 1pp