Paris, (ST) - The European Central Bank chief economist, Philippe Line, announced that the coronavirus pandemic crisis has hit the European economy with sustained weakness, ruling out the return of European Gross domestic product (GDP) to 2019 levels before the fall of 2022.

"What we are closely watching is the outbreak of the virus, which inevitably restricts consumer behavior more than isolation measures do," he said in an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos, stressing the importance of knowing how long this matter will be.

He ruled out that the last weeks of this year will witness an improvement, noting that as long as the vaccine against Corona is not widely distributed, we will remain in a foggy period.

Damascus,(ST)- The decision committee on appointing the families of military martyrs (wife and sons) in the Prime Ministry issued new lists for employing the families of martyrs after examining the applications that fulfill the conditions by the committee.

The committee said in a statement that SANA received a copy of today that the new list included 226 people from the families of the martyrs, bringing the number of job opportunities secured for the families of military martyrs since the formation of the committee of 2017 until now to 4890 contracts.

Haifaa Mafalani

On November 22, the Industrial Bank announced its readiness to finance solar and wind renewable energies projects, whether for electricity production, water heating, steam production or water pumping, through loans with a maximum limit of 70 percent of the estimated cost of each project.

The Bank’s Director General Dr. Omar Sidi stated that in cooperation  with the National Center for Energy Research, it was agreed that the bank will finance solar and wind renewable energy projects at a high financing rate compared to the rest of the loans, which is 70 percent of the estimated cost of the project.

Aleppo, (ST) - The City Council of Aleppo continues to implement projects to rehabilitate the infrastructure of the main and secondary streets in the neighborhoods of the city and areas liberated from terrorism, specifically the streets in the districts of Bustan al-Qasr and al-Aziziyah, at a value of 50 million Syrian pounds.

Eng. Imad Al-Wasi, the Director of the City Center Services affiliated to Aleppo City Council, explained to SANA's correspondent that the project of asphalting a number of streets in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood liberated from terrorism is part of the Council’s plans to rehabilitate these roads.

Moscow, (ST) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree establishing a trade mission  for Russia this year in Syria.

According to the decree reported by Sputnik that, “in 2020, a commercial representation of the Russian Federation in the Syrian Arab Republic will be opened in the city of Damascus.”

The agency added that instructions were issued to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Russia to approve the structure and staff of the representation office, and at the same time Russia has liquidated commercial representations in Lithuania and Ukraine.

Raghda Sawas