Euro zone officials on Tuesday said they had approved €2.8 billion for Greece from its huge third bailout after the country delivered the needed reforms.
After the latest disbursement approved by the European Stability Mechanism, Greece will have received €31.7 billion of the €86 billion bailout granted in July 2015, its third since being engulfed by debt in 2010.
Britain’s biggest banks are preparing to move out of the country in early 2017 because of fears over the impending Brexit negotiations as Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers Association, said in an interview published by The Observer on Sunday.
The CEO cited fears the European Union politicians will want to erect trade barriers during the Brexit negotiation as a reason for the planned moves. So rather than risk weakening the strength of the City of London’s financial prowess during negotiations, a number of companies are preparing to move wholesale.
Ceta, the trade agreement between Eu and Canada, could go in flame. Today, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland’s efforts to convince the holdout Belgian region of Wallonia to agree to the European Union’s wide-ranging free trade deal with Canada have ended without a resolution.
All 28 EU governments support the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but Belgium cannot give assent without backing from five sub-federal administrations and French-speaking Wallonia has steadfastly opposed it. Wallonia counts about 3.5 million people, less than 1% of the 507 million Europeans CETA would affect. The deal aims to eliminate 98% of tariffs between Canada and EU.
Scotland will push for a second independence referendum if Tory Prime Minister Theresa May follows through with plans to take the UK out of the single market in a ‘hard Brexit,’ First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Thursday.
Speaking at the SNP’s three-day annual conference, Sturgeon argued the Tories have no democratic mandate for a ‘hard Brexit,’ which would see a severe crackdown on EU immigration and a departure from the single market.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not join the Greek bailout program but will accept a special role as advisory status with limited powers, according to Reuters’ sources. “A special advisory status with limited powers that keeps IMF at the table”, looks like the most possible scenario, Reuters reporting two senior sources.
The British currency suffered a massive temporary loss in value overnight, diving 10% against the dollar in just minutes – a so-called flash crash. It fell from around $1.26 to near $1.14 in trading in Asia before recovering somewhat by the time Europe woke up, it was the most aggressive move since the results of the Brexit vote emerged in June.
With traders struggling to find whether it was a "fat finger error" or related to fears over Brexit, the Bank of England said in a statement: “We are looking at the causes of the sharp falls over night".
Romania prepared to vote on a plan to convert Swiss franc mortgages to the domestic currency at the exchange rate applicable when they were issued, Reuters reported on Friday; romanian lawmakers are expected to pass a bill on Monday.
There are about 50,000 loans still denominated in Swiss Francs and banks are on the edge to lose €540 mln, according to Romanian central bank’s estimates.
Der französische Regierungschef Manuel Valls dringt auf eine andere Wachstumspolitik in Europa und geht dabei auf Konfrontationskurs mit Deutschland.
