Greece’s Andreas Vazaios competes in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m individual medley swimming event at the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan on August 5, 2015.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had to rely on opposition parties to pass a raft of so-called “prior actions” in parliament last month when about a quarter of his Syriza lawmakers rebelled, calling the deal a sell-out.
“Despite all the difficulties we are facing, we hope that this agreement will put an end to uncertainty on the future of Greece”, Tsipras said.
Shares in the country’s listed banks have crashed since the stock market opened on Monday after a five week shut down as part of the capital controls.
The Greek government is close to reaching a bailout deal with its creditors, but it’s likely to be a Pyrrhic victory.
“We are in the final stretch”.
“The US dollar has continued to strengthen… following more hawkish rhetoric from a Fed official which has resulted in the market discounting a higher probability of a rate hike in September”, Lee Hardman, currency analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said.
Greek and European regulators seem generally determined to let the market run on its own for a few days, outside of the already-established volatility controls, which include special restrictions on local investors.
A government spokesman said the talks will shift to a “second phase” where the two sides will begin to actually draft the accord, which will be concluded on August 18.
The 41-year-old premier, who faced a mutiny among his lawmakers last month, has warned that early elections will be called if his MPs refuse to ratify the new bailout in parliament.
A government spokeswoman confirmed that early elections were likely to take place this autumn, but she added: “It mainly depends on how steady this government can be in the coming period”.
Greece will “fully normalize working methods with the Institutions, including the necessary work on the ground in Athens, to improve program implementation and monitoring”, as indicated by the summit agreement Tsipras signed up to. “There is no democracy in the country”, said Panagiotis Lafazanis, head of Syriza’s Left Platform group, from which most rebels come.
“I imagine all the politicians associated with Left Platform will not vote (either)”, Lafazanis said during a visit to the northern city of Thessaloniki.
“Greek banking stocks were the worst hit with Alpha Bank, Attica Bank, and Eurobank Ergasius, Bank of Piraeus and the National Bank of Greece all closed around 30 percent lower – the daily volatility limit”, CNBC reports. They reopened on July 20, but withdrawals and money transfers overseas remain restricted.
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Talks on privatisations have been held up over what Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos says is a minor issue, essentially over whether a new or existing agency should deal with tenders already agreed.
