Standard & Poor's downgrades Greek debt again

Standard & Poor's rating agency has classified Greek debt as in "selective default" following the deal it made with creditors to reduce its debts. The rating agency says the terms of that deal triggered the latest downgrade. Greek debt already had a "junk" grade rating from the agency.

Separately, the European Central Bank said it was suspending the eligibility of Greek bonds as collateral for loans to commercial banks. The ECB explained that by the middle of next month it would start to accept the bonds again, because a programme for eurozone nations to provide supplementary collateral to insure the ECB against losses is due to come into effect.

Banks and other financial firms are being asked by Greece's government to take a 53.5% loss on their Greek sovereign bonds. The plan was agreed by the Greek parliament last week, and, if backed by Greece's creditors, it would wipe out 107bn euros of the country's debt.

Standard & Poor's said that when the debt exchange was complete it would assess Greece again and possibly raise its rating. The Greek government said S&P's move had been expected and added it would not hurt the banking industry.

Last week, rival credit rating agency Fitch also downgraded Greece's debt.

Xabier Sanchez

SPANISH GOVERNMENT WILL DEDUCT TAXES TO THE TOWN COUNCILS THAT DON'T PAY TO THEIR PROVIDERS

Spanish government will deduct some taxes that it fave before to the city councils if these institutions don’t arrange the operations of debts to pay their providers or if they don’t fulfil the ones that they agree each other.

BOE (Spanish Oficial Report) published yesterday the law that the cabinet passed on Friday. It establishes the obligation of information for a funding mechanism. In this mechanism the creditors who accept a deduction will have priority in the cashing.

This operation will transfer to the Spanish State the rights of local entities in its participation on the taxes of the State ‘in the necesary quantity to face the payment obligations’.

Apart from the providers that accept a reduction the payments that are demanded in the Justice Court before the first of January 2012 will become priority too. The most ancient debts will become priority too. The city councils will send to Treasury Department before de 15th of March, a relation of its obligation that they have to pay yet.

Erik Rios Salazar

Polish Economy

The Polish economy is one of the most important in the European Union and one that did not suffer during the global financial and economic crisis. Its market of nearly 40 million inhabitants, located strategically in the center of Europe, won 8.4 billion euros of foreign investment in 2009. Despite the global crisis Poland can boast its economy because it is the only EU economy that continues growing.

This is because the assignment of European funds or the 2012 European Championship, which has pushed the development in the area of construction and services. It is also expected that in the next years will continue the development of the Polish economy.

The Polish legal system is adapted to the needs of the common market. It offers investment mechanisms similar to those of the EU and they have benefits in foreign investment.

Poland is in a time of continued development in spite of other European Union economies that are suffering the global financial crisis. In recent years it has grown at a rate higher than the Eurozone and the GDP growth rate was 1.7%.

The fall of the world economy has increased the unemployment rate and is currently located by 11.9%. And the inflation rate is 3.5% by the strong domestic demand and the increase in consumption.

During the last year and because of the crisis in the international economy, imports and exports have been affected. Poland exports were 99.8 billion euros in 2009 (17.6% less than last year). Most exports absorb the EU countries. And the main business partners of Poland are Germany, France, Italy and Britain.

Nerea

A STEP FURTHER: LAST DAY IN POLAND

Today was our last day in Poland. We have gone to Gdansk airport, because our flight was at 1:00 p.m. Our arrival to Bilbao was at 5:30 p.m. after doing a ‘escala’ in Munich.

Next week we will have holidays for 5-7 days so we can relax a little bit and prepare to our next exams.

We are a bit sad because we leave Poland today, but we are very happy too because we have knew a lot of new friends and we lived new experiences with them. We hope to see you all again soon! Thanks for your hospitality.

Erik Rios, Xabier Sánchez, Jon Mikel Cruz

A STEP FURTHER: 5th DAY LAST DAY AT SCHOOL

Today was the last day for us with the rest of the students in Poland. In the morning we met at 9:30 a.m. at school. We divided the whole group in 4 to make our last job. It consisted in make a presentation of what we did in this four days and what we liked it more from Poland. We had the chance to show our presentations to the rest of the students, teachers and a member of the regional education deparment.

After the presentations we say goodbye to our croatian, slovenian and polish partners. And enjoyed the free afternoon! Turkish students will go home tomorrow as we are going to do.

Erik Rios, Jon Mikel Cruz, Xabier Sánchez

A STEP FURTHER: 4th DAY VISIT TO MALBORK

Today we wake up at 7:30 a.m. The planning of the day was to visit Malbork Castle during the morning, a place near Starogard-Gdanski. After taking the bus, we arrived at Malbork in only one hour. The castle is the biggest medieval castle in Europe. The weather was very very cold, and the castle was old, so the difference of temperature between outside and inside did not exist! The castle was very big, and it had a lot of rooms. After the visit we have a good time playing a bit with the snow.

At 2:00 p.m. we went to have lunch to a little restaurant. After a little break, we took the bus again to return to Starogard to take our sportwear and went to school to play a volleyball match. It was a competitive and amazing match! This was the last activity of the day, before we return to hotel.

Erik Rios, Jon Mikel Cruz, Xabier Sánchez

A STEP FURTHER: 3rd DAY VISIT TO GDANSK

Today we have visited Gdansk. We took the bus at 8:80 a.m. and we arrived there at 10:00 a.m. It was a very cold day, but we hold on that cold to visit the city. It’s a very beautiful city! And it was snowing during the visit, so the snow made the visit a bit special. We visited the principal streets of the city, called the Royal Way. We visited a couple of museums during the visit to the city.

We had lunch at 1:00 p.m. in a very special restaurant. It was in a building but… in the 16th floor! We had a nice lunch with a wonderful panoramic sightseeing.

After the lunch we took the bus to go our next visit. It was the PGE Arena Stadium. We visited the Stadium. It was amazing! It was very big and a new stadium for the Euro2012. We were visiting a places like the locker room of the players!

To finish our day in Gdansk we went to a theatre to watch a ‘Grease musical’. It was strange during the first part because it was completely in polish! All the songs too! But the musical was very great and we enjoyed a lot! When the musical finished, we took again the bus to return to the hotel.

Erik Rios, Xabier Sánchez, Jon Mikel Cruz