Wednesday 13 July 2011

Greek News

The latest and breaking news from Greece.

Latest Greek News

FTSE suffers sharp fall on euro contagion fears

Italy contagion fears hit global markets

Financials and commodity stocks led a sharp fall on Britain's FTSE 100 on Tuesday as nervous investors extended a recent sell-off on heightened worries that Europe's debt problems would spread beyond Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

12 Jul 2011

Greece's Finance Minister speaks on the economy: highlights

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos speaks in the Greek Parliament, Athens, Greece

Greece's Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos held a news conference on Tuesday on his return from a eurogroup meeting in Brussels to tackle the debt crisis and domestic policy. Here are the highlights of what he said.

12 Jul 2011

US slows global stock market rout

US markets marked time on Tuesday as investors took stock after the biggest two-day drop since March triggered by fears that the eurozone debt crisis was spreading to Italy and Spain.

12 Jul 2011

Eurozone opens door to buyback of Greek bonds

Eurozone finance ministers opened the door to using the currency union's bailout fund to buy up distressed Greek bonds, thereby cutting the country's overall debt load as they scrambled to stop the debt crisis from spreading to Italy and Spain.

12 Jul 2011

Eurogroup statement on Greek debt crisis - in full

Eurozone finance ministers and officials met on Monday to discuss the options for solving Greece's debt crisis. Here is the text of their statement after the talks:

12 Jul 2011

How the private sector could rescue Greece

There is one obvious solution to the bail-out paralysis facing Greece, and it is gaining traction. The debt buy-back. But, as with anything euro-related, striking an agreement is proving more troublesome than navigating a path between Scylla and Charybdis.

06 Jul 2011

Lagarde's IMF press conference as it happened

New IMF boss keeps lips sealed on Greece at maiden press conference.

06 Jul 2011

Lessons of Argentina crisis ignored in handling of Greece

For a vision of how the Greek debt meltdown is going to end, look no further than the International Monetary Fund's post mortem into a similar crisis that came to a head almost exactly a decade ago - Lessons From The Crisis In Argentina.

04 Jul 2011

Greek debt rollover would be 'selective default'

Plans to allow Greece to defer the repayment of its debt have been dealt a blow after Standard & Poor's said the move could mean the stricken country had defaulted.

04 Jul 2011

Greece debt rollover would be classed as a default, warns S&P

Greece will be put into default if it agrees to a plan proposed by French banks to rollover its debts, according to a warning from ratings agency Standard & Poor's.

04 Jul 2011

Greece must sell off assets on an East German-style scale

Greece must privatise assets on a scale similar to the sell-off of East German companies at the fall of the Berlin Wall to rebuild its finances, the chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers said on Sunday.

03 Jul 2011

Greece cannot borrow its way out of this debt crisis

Greece should leave the euro, devalue, and make credit available for private sector led growth, writes John Redwood.

03 Jul 2011

Israel claims diplomatic victory as Greece stops Gaza flotilla

Israel on Sunday claimed a diplomatic victory in its attempts to stop a flotilla of ships manned by pro-Palestinian activists from sailing towards Gaza after it was banned from leaving port by the Greek authorities.

03 Jul 2011

Greek debt 'a threat to Irish recovery'

Ireland's nascent economic recovery could be threatened by the failure to find a long-term solution to Greece's debt crisis, the man tasked with for attracting foreign companies to the country has said.

03 Jul 2011

Greece, a nation for sale

As besieged country prepares to offload assets to pay off debt, militant unions prepare for battle.

02 Jul 2011

Greece aid injection approved

The threat of an imminent default was lifted from Greece as eurozone politicians signed off the release of a €12bn (£11bn) injection to the crisis-hit nation.

02 Jul 2011

Greece bars vessels carrying several hundred activists from leaving Greek ports for Gaza Strip

Greece on Friday banned ships heading to the Gaza Strip from leaving Greek ports, and a vessel carrying several dozen Americans which left port without permission was asked to return.

01 Jul 2011

Greece approves second part of austerity bill

Greece's politicians have approved the second part of a radical €28bn (£25bn) austerity package, clearing the way for international authorities to release a €12bn cash injection as early as this weekend.

30 Jun 2011

Papandreou wins second vote on austerity plan

Greek lawmakers have voted through the details of fresh austerity measures, but objections from all sides on parts of the plan served notice of fresh rows ahead after days of rioting in Athens.

30 Jun 2011

Alert as Greece prepares to pass second cuts bill

Greece's parliament is expected to pass a second austerity bill following a day of violence in protest at austerity measures.

30 Jun 2011

Greece braced for further violence over cuts

Country prepares for fresh riots after politicians passed austerity measures that led to rioting in Athens.

30 Jun 2011

Athens ablaze as riots continue

Violent clashes in Athens continue overnight with teargas and smoke from blazing fires filling the city centre.

30 Jun 2011

Greece austerity vote: Q & A

What was the vote about? Will the Greek bailout Mark II finally sort things out?

29 Jun 2011

War zone Athens as riots mark dark day for Greece

A young woman staggered down the steps of Syntagma Square blinded by the acrid smoke as thick clouds of tear gas billowed across the heart of the Greek capital.

29 Jun 2011

Greece is Europe's rotten apple - and it only takes one to spoil the barrel

By itself Greece is a small country worth 0.5pc of global GDP and as the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill, pointed out in The Sunday Telegraph, China has foreign currency reserves large enough to buy Greece's $450bn of debt five times over.

29 Jun 2011