BRUSSELS (MNI) - There is no need for Greece to take additional measures to cut its budget deficit because its current austerity plan is adequate, a European Commission spokesman said on Monday, denying reports in the Greek press.

Over the weekend some Greek media reported that European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, was planning to travel to Greece later this month to ask for additional austerity measures. Rehn's spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, told reporters that the Commission "doesn't foresee any visit" by Rehn.

ATHENS (MNI) - Greece's central government deficit dropped 41.8% in the first half of this year compared with the same period of 2009, according to data released Monday by the Bank of Greece.

The central bank's data show the central government deficit at E11.45 billion in the January-June period this year, down from E19.68 billion in January-June of last year.

Regular budget revenues rose to E23.2 billion in the same period from E21.7 billion a year earlier. Expenses fell to E30.1 billion from E35.5 billion.

FRANKFURT (MNI) - The European Central Bank said Monday that a total of E61.083 billion Eurosystem covered bond purchases had settled as of July 4.

As of July 1, settled acquisitions had totaled E61.082 billion, the ECB said Friday.

The program is aimed at revitalizing a market segment that has been exceptionally hard hit by the financial turmoil.

BEIJING (MNI) - The Chinese economy may have grown by 10.6% y/y in the second quarter of this year, a government economist said in comments published Monday.

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (MNI) - The results of European bank stress tests will be published "around July 23" and will show the banking sector is "solid and healthy," France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said over the weekend, according to French agency reports.

"Around July 23 the results of the stress tests will be published," Christine Lagarde told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in this southern French city, according to Agence France Presse. "You will see that banks in Europe are solid and healthy."

AIX EN PROVENCE, France (MNI) - ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet Sunday downplayed fears of a double dip recession despite a recent spate of soft economic data, saying he didn't think another recession was on the cards, according to French and Italian press agency reports.

PARIS (MNI) - The Eurozone's economic recovery is "well on track" and while budget cuts by EMU governments may dampen growth in the short term, that impact will be more than offset by the long-term benefit of streamlining public deficits and debt, European Central Bank Executive Board member Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell said Saturday.

BEIJING (MNI) - Exchange rate flexibility has its benefits but large-scale volatility in a currency's value can be harmful to the economy, People's Bank of China Vice-Governor Hu Xiaolian was reported as saying at the weekend.

Exchange rate flexibility can help promote balance in internal and external demand but that "speculative and herd-driven (flows) have a big impact on exchange rates," Hu said at a conference in Shanghai, according to a report carried by the National Business Daily, a Shanghai-based newspaper.