The turnover of small and medium-sized retail companies in Greece has been shrinking at an annual rate of 5 percent since 2013, while the number of shutdowns in the period from 2008 to 2013 reached 30,000. This translates into a 16 percent total reduction in shops, climbing to 28 percent in Attica, a National Bank of Greece report on retail sector SMEs showed on Wednesday. Source Kathimerini
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia does not wish to impose a 1973-style oil embargo on Western consumers, the country’s energy minister reportedly said Monday, amid a deepening crisis over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Source: CNBC
Saudi Arabia signed deals worth more than $50 billion in oil, gas, infrastructure and other sectors at an investment conference in Riyadh on Tuesday, officials there said. Source: Reuters
The European Commission is set to reject Italy’s budget on Tuesday (23 October) due to an “unprecedented” breach of EU fiscal rules, while Rome has stuck to its guns and presented the breach as a “difficult but necessary decision” taken by the government. Source: Euractiv
