The Standard & Poor’s ratings services lowered its long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings for Greece to ‘CCC+/C’ from ‘B-/B’.

The representatives of the social partners (employers and trade union associations) in their first trilateral meeting with the government on Wednesday supported an increase of the minimum wage, though the employers expressed certain reservations relating to wage progression and social insurance contributions.

The burden of taxes and social insurance contributions accounted for 43.4 pct of wages in Greece, sharply up from an average of 26.9 pct in OECD countries, a report showed on Wednesday.