Greece plans to introduce a special levy for natural disasters, said Alexis Patelis, chief economic advisor to the prime minister of Greece.

Greek job vacancies rose by 36% y-o-y in the second quarter, to 37,107, the statistics office ELSTAT said.

Greece’s import price index (MPI) in industry dropped for a sixth consecutive month in July, to 14.4% y-o-y, data.

Stocks in Athens were higher in choppy trade at midday Thursday, with the general index visiting both territories during the session. Banks tried to claw back some of the recent lost ground. The ECB’s decision on the interest rate front is closely monitored.

Greece’s second quarter jobless rate stood at 11.2%, down from the previous quarter’s reading of 11.8% and the year-ago figure of 12.4%, National Statistics Office or ELSTAT said. People-out-of work reached 533.3K. Long-term unemployment remained high, at 59.9%.

Stocks in Athens edged higher in early trade, in line with Europe’s trends.

Greek banks announced a four-month moratorium of loans to floods-affected borrowers.

Greek government will table a supplementary budget of around 600 million euros to deal with the catastrophic damages caused by the Daniel Storm, Finance Minister Costis Hatzidakis said late Wednesday.

Equities closed down, hitting three-month lows, as investors are concerned over the cost of the damages caused by the devastating Storm Daniel.

Greece will mobilise additional 500-600 million euros to restore road and rail networks in the flood-stricken areas of central Greece.