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The Greek Islands have such an enduring appeal as a holiday home destination that Pamela Tomlinson, the South Oxfordshire councillor, is based on one.

Conservative Pamela Tomlinson last attended a South Oxfordshire District Council meeting five months ago, but has continued to claim her basic £2,900-a-year allowance – paid to all councillors.

She told the Oxford Mail she was still able to work on ward issues from her holiday home in Greece and that her offer to resign her seat had been rejected because the council’s leader did not want to call a by-election.

But Clifton Hampden Parish Council has complained to district council chief executive David Buckle – claiming residents rarely saw Mrs Tomlinson.

Parish council chairman Chris Dupond said Mrs Tomlinson, who represents Sandford ward, rarely attended their meetings to represent the district council. Berinsfield district councillor John Cotton has been appearing in her place.

“The parish council has been pretty horrified, and we think it’s quite wrong. We have been dissatisfied for a long time. Our meetings were rarely attended, or she used to turn up and read the district council newsletter to us,” said Mr Dupond. “The whole thing has been totally unacceptable,” he added.

Mrs Tomlinson said she had sold her house in Clifton Hampden in May but had another property in Oxfordshire. She insisted she was still performing her council duties and spent “less than half” her time abroad.

She said: “It’s a holiday home. Nobody would want to live on a small Greek island full-time. I’m still a member of South Oxfordshire District Council. I’m attending a group meeting tomorrow and had meetings in Wallingford and Reading today.

“Yes, I have got a place in Greece, and I have spent some time there over the summer, but it’s quite easy to deal with things by email and I have had another district councillor covering parish council meetings when I have not been there.”

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This report is brought to you by Ian Daly at Exel Currencies

If you strip away the political correctness, Chapter Three of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook more or less condemns Southern Europe to death by slow suffocation and leaves little doubt that fiscal tightening will trap North Europe, Britain and America in slump for a long time. The IMF report “Will It Hurt? It argues that austerity will do more damage than so far admitted. Normally, tightening of 1pc of GDP in one country leads to a 0.5pc loss of growth after two years. It is another story when half the globe is in trouble and tightening in lockstep.

The lesson of the 1930s is that politics can turn ugly as slumps drag into a third year, and voters lose faith in the promised recovery. Unemployment is already 20pc in Spain. If Mrs Salgado is wrong, Spanish society will face a stress test. We are seeing a pattern, first in Ireland, now in Greece and Portugal where cuts are failing to close the deficit as fast as hoped. Austerity itself is eroding tax revenues. Countries are chasing their own tail.

The rest of EMU is not going to help. France and Italy are cutting 1.6pc GDP next year. The German squeeze starts in earnest in 2011. Given the risks, you would expect the ECB to stand by with monetary stimulus. But no, while the central banks of the US, the UK, and Japan are worried enough to mull a fresh blast of money, Frankfurt is talking up its exit strategy. It risks repeating the error of July 2008 when it raised rates in the teeth of the crisis.

The ECB is winding down its lending facilities for the Euro zone banks, regardless of the danger for Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, and Greek banks that have borrowed €362bn, or the danger for their governments. These banks have used the money to buy state bonds, playing the internal “carry trade” for extra yield. In other words, the ECB is chipping at the prop that holds up Southern Europe.

What does this mean to you?

Its still early days to tell how this can pan out as most analysts are stating that as soon as the cuts come in it could spark more social unrest and any losses that were seeing now in the GBP – EUR should be eradicated when the cuts come in throughout Europe in the new year. However the talk of QE is starting to spread like wild fire from the US to the UK and our worst fears might just come through.

Anyone looking to buy Euros recently would have held there breath at around 12 mid-day on Thursday as the BoE announced whether or not they would continue the Quantitative Easing programme. However to everyone’s relief the BoE kept everything on hold for at least another month and after the release of this the markets took a positive look at the UK and Sterling began to gain against a basket of major currencies. Until the UK sees consistent growth it will be a nervous start for the next few months.

Outlook

Sterling has being pinned down by the Euro this week and any negative news released from the Euro zone has had little effect even after the down grade of Irish Bank AIB. It was strange to see the pound so week against the Euro this week because of some unexpected encouraging figures from the UK’s construction and services industry along with industrial and manufacturing figures.

The only conclusion most analysts have come to is that the talk of QE from the UK has put everyone on high alert and what looks like a perfect week for the UK on paper has not materialised. While the current rate of around €1.14 is far from the best we have seen this year, after seeing what QE has done to the pound last year, €1.14 actually looks like a good price at the moment. Anyone looking to buy Euros within the next 3 months might want to consider a forward contact to secure the rate or what most of my clients are doing is half cost averaging. (Half now and half later).

This weeks case study

This week we had Stephanie and Edward Stevenson as they had to start making payments for there property if they want to move in before their Christmas deadline. What I suggested they do this week was half now and half again next month before the next interest rate decision as the talk of QE was holding the pound back against the Euro.

During the week I explained to Stephanie and Edward that the BoE have their interest rate decision on Thursday and with the talk of QE we might see a surprise purchase of another 25billion and that this would see the pound drop drastically. After being asked my personal opinion on it I felt that it was too soon to be continuing QE and at the moment we have only heard of one BoE MPC member talk about adding to the QE programme and that when the minutes are released in a couple of weeks this will give me a good idea of which way the 9 members are leaning. I would then be able to guide you far better to the correct time to trade. So we decided to book early on in the week and secured at €1.1550.

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This report is brought to you by Ian Daly at Exel Currencies

Greece has turned up the heat on the country’s commercial banks by requiring them to boost lending to businesses and households in return for access to a new €25bn liquidity package.

Chief executives from Greece’s biggest lenders agreed on Tuesday to participate in a so-called “liquidity pact” following joint talks with George Papaconstantinou, the finance minister. Mr Papaconstantinou said each bank would sign a separate deal with the government which would be monitored by the country’s central bank, “so that we know these funds are really going to support the Greek economy.”

Greece has signed a preliminary deal with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund that could clear the way for investments of up to $5 billion in the indebted European country. The memorandum does not commit either side to specific projects, a Greek official, who was not permitted to speak publicly, said. But he said the planned investments would cover tourism, real estate, transport, infrastructure, finance and energy projects.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Wednesday ruled out additional increases in his nation’s value-added tax, saying the government will find alternative ways to boost revenues. “There has been of course the possibility of (tax in) some products being raised further, but we’re seeing if we can find other ways of getting revenues rather than raising that further,” Papandreou said in an interview with Reuters Insider. Right now, the prime minister added, the government says “No’ to raising the VAT.

Greece will postpone stress testing the country’s banks for later in the autumn, a source at the central bank told Reuters on Monday. “The stress tests will not be done in September,” said a Bank of Greece official who did not want to be named. “

What does this mean to you?

In the long term this will have a positive effect for anyone looking to buy in Greece (see Property in Skopelos) as out side investment can only have a positive out come for Greece. This news if it does come true will make Greece look far more attractive for anyone considering the move over or for the medium to long term investment. However if your looking to buy soon and are sitting on Sterling then you will be sad to hear that the pound has lost momentum again for another consecutive week and over the last couple of days there has being more and more of QE.

To remind everyone of what happened to the pound the last time the UK decided to do Quantitative Easing, it turned out to be the first time we every saw near parity level between the 2 currencies. If looking to sell your Euros back to Sterling its just about as good as it gets but looking to sell Sterling to buy Euros then it might just stop you from making that big move. Earlier this week an MPC member Adam Posen said he thinks the UK should begin QE again to stimulate the economy. These comments instantly drop the Pound/Euro rate by over a cent by close of business that day and big cracks are starting to show in the UK and the road ahead is looking very bumpy.

Outlook

Sterling has continued to be hit by poor figures for another week with the main focus being on the mortgage approvals. Along with Adam Posen’s comments this UK weakness has given traders the excuse to sell the pound and this trend has not stopped. Looking forward to try and find some relief the UK is expecting Consumer confidence figures, Industrial and manufacturing figures along with the all important GDP estimate. Another round of negative data next week may just be the excuse the Bank of England need to continue QE.

This weeks case study

This week we had Mr Subedar who has being trying to sell his property in Spain to buy in England. We had discussed the possibility of doing a forward contract but due to the weak data from the UK we had decided to hold on as we were gaining each day. Mr Subedar sent over the deposit in case we had unexpected data that went in his favour. It was only just a couple of days ago we had a jump in over a cent thanks to the comments from a MPC member and this has favoured Mr Subedar but more importantly I suggested that he holds on as UK outlook was weak and this has turned out to have earned him an extra £3,660. He has now locked in a forward contract at €-£ 0.8658 and when his Spanish property does sell he will not have to worry about where the exchange rate is.

Next week

Next week we will be dealing Stephanie and Edward Stevenson again as they have to start making payments for there property if they want to move in before their Christmas deadline.

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This report is brought to you by Ian Daly at Exel Currencies

Following their visit to Athens from July 26 to August 5 for the first quarterly review of the Greek government’s economic program, staff teams from the, ECB and IMF issued a press release, noting that their overall assessment is that the programme has made a strong start.

BoG released its Financial Stability Report – July 2010, in which among other statistical figures BoG is stressing out that in 2010 credit risk is expected to remain high and also that Greek banks should consider (at the same time) initiatives like alliances and/or mergers to basically try and spread the risk.

The Financial Minister announced that Greece will increase the government guarantees offered on banks which will reach EUR 55bn bringing the entire support plan (including special government bonds and state preference shares) to EUR 68bn or 30% of GDP, still below levels offered by other EU-members in the past.

Greece expects to pass a tax reform bill early March, with a view to boosting revenues from 2011, the country’s finance minister said on Friday. “The big bet of our tax reform is the broadening of the tax base,” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told a news conference. His comments came after Fitch and Standard and Poor’s both downgraded the debt-laden country’s rating earlier this month over concerns about its deteriorating finances, sending its bonds and stocks tumbling. “Moody’s will take its decision in the coming weeks,” Papaconstantinou said, adding that Wednesday’s rating downgrade by S&P had been expected.

What does this mean to you?

With a mix of good and bad news this week the GBP – EUR rate has not moved much and has stayed between €1.2003 – €1.2085. There has being added pressure on the pound from the PPI figures which is a break down of the overall GDP figure. The most important of the PPI’s is the Services which accounts for 80%, this saw a drop from 58.4% to 54.1%. If this continues this will most definitely see the pound lose against the Euro.

Outlook

In the short term the pressure is still on the pound and anything over €1.19 is still a reasonable exchange rate. However in the long term the pound should gain but if figures continue to disappoint gradually, the pound will struggle on its next set of GDP figures which some analysts are already predicting to be weaker then the previous quarter. The next set of interesting figures will be the inflation figures and the Minutes of the BoE interest rate decision. If we see more then one member voting for interest rate hike then this could help the pound rally against the Euro but best not to hold your breath for that as the BoE have already shown that they can be slow to move the base interest rate which is currently at 0.50%.

Last weeks case study

Last week we had a Miss Jennifer Steed who has to make her monthly mortgage payment along with bills which comes to €1,695. As this payment is smaller then a typical payment I suggested that Jennifer be put into one of our Group Bookings to achieve a better exchange rate.

What Excel did was group Jennifer’s funds with 15 other clients who were looking to exchange roughly the same amount and in total we ended up buying €25,500. Which meant our bank gave Excel a better exchange rate which we simply passed onto all 15 clients. This meant that instead of getting an exchange rate of €1.1725 we were able to achieve a group rate of €1.1931.

This week

This week we will be continuing to deal with Jennifer as over the next 2 weeks she will need to make a larger payment for building maintenance she’s having done on her property.

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This article is brought to you by holidaylettings

This Article is from August 11 2010

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (F&CO) is warning holiday makers to expect regular strikes and demonstrations throughout Greece threatening to bring mayhem during the holiday season.

An urban guerrilla group – the Sect of Revolutionaries – has issued a leaflet threatening to bring mayhem during the holiday season. “Tourists should know that Greece is no longer a safe haven of capitalism,” it said. “We aim to transform it into a war zone of revolutionary processes, with arson, sabotage, fierce demonstrations, bomb attacks, armed killings.”

But, reports TravelMole, the group has not said it will target tourists directly and the F&CO has not altered its travel advice to tourists since the terrorist threat was made public.

“Strikes and demonstrations are sometimes called at short notice and can cause disruption to public transport in and out of Greece – including air travel and ports,” it warns.

The F&CO also warns that there is a possibility of further industrial action by air traffic controllers over the summer months and advises passengers to contact the airline they are travelling with for further information.

On Monday 2 August, a truck and tanker drivers’ strike was called off in Greece. The strike had lasted almost a week and deprived petrol stations of fuel and prompted some tourists to cancel holidays. But, according to the F&CO, petrol stations across Greece are now expected to have fuel.

The protests have been sparked by anger over the unpopular economic austerity measures the ruling socialists have been forced to enact to stave off bankruptcy in Greece.

According to UK director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation, Sofia Panayiotaki, Greece is one of the safest countries in the world. She said she did not believe tourists should be concerned by the latest threats of industrial action or terrorist activity.

“The government acted very quickly last week to bring in the army and private companies to make sure fuel got distributed and there are no shortages of anything now. I have driven from Athens to the north of the country today and everything is fine,” she said.

Sofia Panayiotak also reminded holidaymakers of the government’s recent pledge to compensate any tourists who suffer financial loss due to strikes in Greece. “At the moment we are considering two cases of British tourists who missed their ferries,” she said.

“Anyone else who has a problem caused by strikes can contact the tourist office when they return and we will consider their claim.

Whether you are touring in mainland Greece or visiting one of its beautiful islands, like Skopelos, Greece has enduring appeal as a tourist holiday destination.

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This report is brought to you by Ian Daly at Exel Currencies

Banks stress test results are satisfactory

The Greek banking system had banks covering the full spectrum of outcomes. The 3 larger players i.e. NBG, EFG and Alpha Bank and Hellenic Postbank were “in the money” posting capital ratios comfortably over 6% under the most adverse scenario that a double dip recession would make banks go under,

The systems fourth largest bank came in right “on the money” as Piraeus Bank showed that it had just enough capital to withstand the adverse sovereign shock with its Tier 1 coming in at 6%. The one that failed was troubled ATE Bank being “out of the money” with its capital position falling short at 4.4% under the adverse sovereign shock scenario, which was by no means a surprise for market participants. Both Cypriot banks were able to receive a comfortable pass grade as well.

The government was quick in announcing its support to ATE Bank, while we expect developments on that front as it pertains to its capital enhancement options as well as the outcome on the offer received. Overall the results did not hold any major surprises, nevertheless there could be developments regarding Piraeus Bank’s offer for the state’s stakes as its borderline performance could deter its chances of a successful outcome.

The domestic banking system shall undergo another round of stress testing in September as per the provisions of the newly established EUR 10bn Financial Stability Fund.

What does this mean to you?

In light of the Stress test report the Euro has being little changed against the Pound at €1.1978 even though the Stress showed that the major banks in the Euro zone would be safe if we were to see a dip in the global recovery. This is due to the strength from the pound that had seen its GDP grow at its fastest pace in over 4 years to 1.1%. On the other side of the pond, the Euro has gained against the US dollar after the stress test results broke and has climbed to $1.30 earlier this week.

In the short term there still seems to be pressure on the pound and if you can achieve anything over €1.19 then you should take it straight away. However in the long term the pound is still under valued and if time is on your side then it will be well worth waiting those couple extra months before the UK has its next set of GDP figures which some analysts are predicting to be weaker then the previous quarter.

A case study

Last week we had a client who had to transfer £6,500 into Euros. Last week we saw the GBP – EUR rate open at €1.1813 on Monday morning and our client wanted to achieve a minimum rate of €1.19.

What Excel did was analysis the week’s figures and guided the client to the right time to trade which meant we put in place a Stop Loss order to insure he did not get a terrible rate if the rate dropped unexpectedly.

On the Monday Excel asked the client what would be the lowest rate he would want to achieve which was €1.17, so Excel put a Stop Loss order in which meant that if the rate dropped to €1.17 anytime over the week (24/7) then it would automatically buy for him and he would not end up achieving a rate lower then €1.17.

As the week went on we had informed the client about what figures were to be released and how they might affect the exchange rate and in the end we held off till the Friday when we saw better then expected GDP figures released. The Pound gained against the Euro straight away and we were then able to achieve a rate of €1.1955. The client was obviously more then delighted that we achieved a rate better then what he was hoping for and it was all done without major risk involved.

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This article is brought to you by holidaylettings

Thousands of holidaymakers have had their holidays disrupted following the collapse of UK tour operator Goldtrail, which provided flights and holidays to Greece and Turkey.

The company went into administration on Friday – leaving an estimated 16,000 customers overseas and a further 50,000 having to rearrange their holiday plans.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it was making arrangements to fly customers home under its Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme. ATOL provides financial protection to customers that have purchased air holiday packages and flights from a tour operator that stops trading.

Goldtrail Travel Limited traded as Goldtrail Holidays, Goldtrail Travel and Sunmar. It opened in 1996 and was based in Surrey. The company sold charter flights to Turkey and Greece, as well as air holiday packages. These arrangements are covered by ATOL. The company sold its air holidays and flights through travel agents and via its website. According to thisismoney.co.uk, there had been rumours for several months that it was not doing well.

But the collapse has come at a very bad time for the tourist industry – right at the start of the school summer holidays and not long after the volcanic ash cloud disruption in April and BA strikes. July and August are also peak times for holidaymakers travelling to Greece and Turkey.

On its website the CAA advises that people with advanced holiday bookings with Goldtrail will not be able to travel and charter tickets will not be honoured by airlines.

The CAA says: “Those due to travel shortly are advised not to go to their departure airport. Holidaymakers who purchased accommodation only arrangements that did not include flights are not covered by ATOL. Customers should contact their credit card or debit card issuer about recovering money paid. If accommodation was booked through a travel agent, customers should speak to them.”

Horror stories were reported in both Turkey and Greece – with reports of customers being asked by hotels to pay for their own accommodation as hotel managers feared they would not be compensated otherwise

The failure is not on the scale of the XL collapse in September 2008, which left 60,000 holidaymakers stranded abroad, according to Julian Bray – an aviation expert. He said: “Customers who have paid over £100 of the total invoice price by credit (ie: not debit) card may be in a better position to recover some of monies paid to Goldtrail, otherwise customers will be subject to the administration process and could well wait some two years or more for a partial or full payment under travel industry bonding arrangements.”

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TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel website and an operating company of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), recently announced it has acquired the United Kingdom’s largest independent holiday home website holidaylettings.co.uk

The acquisition of Holiday Lettings by TripAdvisor holds enormous amounts of potential for advertisers and consumers. While at the point of the deal no plans had been created for integration, we are now discussing the various options that would see Holiday Lettings adverts appear on the TripAdvisor sites. How Holiday Lettings can offer guest reviews on its adverts and/or how reviews will be handled on Holiday Lettings adverts on TripAdvisor, are expected to form part of these conversations. Once we have completed the proposition, our advertisers will be the first to know.

The core benefit is that a travel company with such a global following and a captive audience of travellers has entered the holiday lettings marketplace. This reflects not only the increasing demand for holiday home lettings, but also the demand for this type of accommodation from existing TripAdvisor users. The blend of our expertise in the holiday home marketing industry with TripAdvisor’s leadership in the travel community ensure that Holiday Lettings has an enviable position in the global travel industry.

Greece has had a tough few months economically and reputationally, but despite this, overall demand for holidays in Greece on Holiday Lettings remains quite steady. Enquiries for Greek holidays sent during June increased five per cent year on year. Owners of Greek holiday homes are increasingly savvy to the need to increase their marketing in order to entice people to the country and many are opting to promote late deals as we steer closer to the main summer period. Year to date compared to 2009, we have experienced a 12 per cent increase in demand for Greek holidays, so we are hopeful that with the focused efforts of those with homes there, along with our continued promotion of the destination, that Greece will continue to attract high volumes of visitors and that holiday home owners will be some of those to benefit most.

If you’d like to advertise your Greek Holiday Home and take advantage of the new opportunities created by this partnership, you can register here, if you do so before 31st July 2010, you will be entitled to their Money Back Guarantee. Find out more here

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This change in the Greek law only applies to Greek prepaid SIM cards

On the 30 July 2010 the Greek government will implement a new law which requires all prepaid mobile phone SIM card holders to be registered. No matter if you live in Greece, or are just visiting, this law will apply. The purpose of this law is to remove anonymity.

Please see full article by Kat Christofer  livingingreece

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Written by Mathew Edwards, Foremost Currency Group (www.foremostcurrencygroup.co.uk)

Last week we witnessed another volatile week for Sterling against the single currency with a 3.2% fluctuation in exchange rates across the week. In real money terms this equated to a difference of over £5500 when purchasing €200,000.

The movements came following a series of economic announcements in both the UK and the Eurozone, further proving the fragile state of both economies and in turn their respective currencies.

The main details of note from a UK perspective came in the shape of the consumer price index (which is a measure of inflation), showing a hike by 0.6% taking the annual rate to 3.7%, higher than the expected 3.5% that had been forecast making the current level the highest seen in 17 months.

This was followed by the bank of England minutes which showed an expected 9-0 vote from the Monetary Policy Committee to hold interest rates at 0.5% and pause its quantitative easing program at £200. The final piece of data released on Friday saw the UK’s budget deficit revised down to £156 from £163, providing a glimmer of hope and welcome news for buyers from the UK in light of a good deal of otherwise negative variables.

With reducing this figure a top priority for newly instated Prime Minister Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Clegg, the news has been well received as the new coalition government attempt to bring the UK out of the financial crisis it is still in.

In the Eurozone, the biggest news of the week came from Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a ban on naked short selling. This caused investors to sell off the Euro causing some short term weakness for the single currency. Also, Spain’s central bank has decided to bail out regional savings bank CajaSur with $621.75 million (500 million euros), causing investors to worry that Spain’s savings banks are in more trouble than the country can handle. This was followed by negative economic sentiment figures from Germany, Greece and the Eurozone as a whole. The fragility of the Euro is sending shockwaves through the EU, as in the case of the Greece bail out package, Greece will benefit yet the German economy will suffer. As these countries lean on one another in the interest of generating support for the single currency, it inevitably feels the strain of such economic unrest.

Euro weakness hurting the pound (Risk Aversion)

The weak Euro is also not helping the pound. All of the euro worries have led to general weakness in risky assets and that’s typically not good news for sterling. It’s more selling of risk than anything else – Sterling is seen as a riskier currency, and so when things are uncertain as they are now, it drives investment towards the safe haven US Dollar – that’s why we have seen Dollar strength of late, and the pound and Euro are comparatively weak. This trend was kick-started by the downgrading of Greece’s sovereign debt rating and as people took to the streets of Athens, concerned investors moved their money from the Euro to the safe haven US Dollar. The downgrading of Spain and Portugal swiftly followed and a fortnight ago at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, reports surfaced of Nicolas Sarkosy threatening to pull France from the Euro if Germany failed to fall in line with the proposed bail out plan for Greece. Although these claims have since been denied, Germany did conveniently change their tact and agreed to fall in line.

What does this mean for people buying property in Greece?

For people looking to buy a property in Greece or on any of the Greek Islands, this may be an opportune time to take advantage of the weakening Euro. If you are looking to exchange Sterling, Scandinavian Krona or Swiss Francs to Euros for your property purchase on Skopelos or anywhere throughout Greece, you are guaranteed to get a good live commercial rate when using a specialist in foreign currency exchange. The difference between a commercial rate and the tourist rate can mean a difference of thousands when exchanging larger sums. Specialists can be found at brokerages like the Foremost Currency Group www.foremostcurrencygroup.co.uk , where I will be able navigate you through the entire process of foreign exchange, keeping you aware of what the markets are doing and why.

Contact Mathew Edwards - Click here
Currency consultant and FX Trader at Foremost Currency Group
www.foremostcurrencygroup.co.uk

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