Daily Archives: February 5, 2015

 Λίγες ώρες μετά τη συνάντηση του προέδρου της ΕΚΤ Μάριο Ντράγκι με τον Έλληνα υπουργό Οικονομικών Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη το Διοικητικό Συμβούλιο της Ευρωπαϊκής Κεντρικής Τράπεζας αποφάσισε να άρει την εξαίρεση που είχε προβλεφθεί για τα εμπορεύσιμα χρηματοδοτικά μέσα που εκδίδονται ή είναι εγγυημένα από το Ελληνικό Δημόσιο και βάσει των οποίων οι ελληνικές τράπεζες είχαν πρόσβαση στις πράξεις νομισματικής πολιτικής του Ευρωσυστήματος.

Σύμφωνα με ανώτατο στέλεχος της Τράπεζας της Ελλάδος η απόφαση της ΕΚΤ δεν επηρεάζει τα επίπεδα ρευστότητας της ελληνικής αγοράς, καθώς οι τράπεζες θα υποκαταστήσουν τη χρηματοδότηση από τον ELA κάτι που όπως τόνισε ο ίδιος θα βαρύνεται αναπόφευκτα με μεγαλύτερο κόστος.

Το αιτιολογικό της απόφασης αναφέρει πως η άρση της εξαίρεσης είναι σύμφωνη με τους ισχύοντες κανόνες του Ευρωσυστήματος, δεδομένου ότι επί του παρόντος δεν είναι δυνατόν η Ελλάδα «να αναλάβει την επιτυχή ολοκλήρωση της επανεξέτασης του προγράμματος».

Στη βάση αυτή πηγές του Ευρωσυστήματος που ερωτήθηκαν από το in.gr ξεκαθάρισαν πως η σχετική απόφαση του ΔΣ της ΕΚΤ δεν σχετίζεται με τη συνάντηση Βαρουφάκη – Ντράγκι.

Στην ανακοίνωση της ΕΚΤ ξεκαθαρίζεται πως η αναστολή δεν έχει καμία επίπτωση στο status αντισυμβαλλομένων των ελληνικών χρηματοπιστωτικών ιδρυμάτων, καθώς οι ανάγκες ρευστότητας που επηρεάζονται μπορούν να ικανοποιηθούν από την εθνική κεντρική τράπεζα, σύμφωνα με τους κανόνες του Ευρωσυστήματος.

«Οι ανάγκες ρευστότητας των αντισυμβαλλομένων του Ευρωσυστήματος, για αντισυμβαλλομένους που δεν έχουν επαρκείς εναλλακτικές εξασφαλίσεις, μπορούν να ικανοποιηθούν από την αντίστοιχη εθνική κεντρική τράπεζα, μέσω της έκτατης παροχής ρευστότητας (ELA), στο πλαίσιο των υφιστάμενων κανόνων του Ευρωσυστήματος», σημειώνεται στην απόφαση.

Ακόμη, αποσαφηνίζεται πως τα χρηματοδοτικά μέσα που εκδίδονται ή είναι εγγυημένα από το Ελληνικό Δημόσιο θα πάψουν να είναι αποδεκτά ως ενέχυρο από τη λήξη της τρέχουσας πράξης κύριας αναχρηματοδότησης (11 Φεβρουαρίου 2015).

Η σημερινή απόφαση της ΕΚΤ ασκεί πρόσθετες πιέσεις στις ελληνικές τράπεζες δεδομένου ότι από την 1η Μαρτίου οι εγγυήσεις του Ελληνικού Δημοσίου (όπως και κάθε άλλης χώρας της ευρωζώνης) δεν θα γίνονται δεκτές από την ΕΚΤ.

Ανακοίνωση εξέδωσε τα ξημερώματα της Πέμπτης το υπουργείο Οικονομικών στην οποία αναφέρεται ότι η απόφαση αυτή δεν αντανακλά σε καμία περίπτωση αρνητικές εξελίξεις στον χρηματοπιστωτικό τομέα της χώρας και έρχεται μετά από δύο ημέρες ουσιαστικής σταθεροποίησής του. Σύμφωνα με την ίδια την Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα (ΕΚΤ), το ελληνικό τραπεζικό σύστημα παραμένει επαρκώς κεφαλαιοποιημένο και πλήρως προστατευμένο μέσω της πρόσβασή του στον ELA.

Πηγή:in.gr

The Greek Finance Ministry interpreted a European Central Bank decision to stop accepting Greek government bonds as collateral from local lenders as a moved aimed at pushing Athens and its eurozone partners towards a new debt deal.

“By taking and announcing this decision, the European Central Bank is putting pressure on the Eurogroup to move quickly to seal a new mutually beneficial deal between Greece and its partners,” said the ministry in a statement released early on Thursday.

The ministry insisted that the ECB’s decision, which means Greek lenders will have to revert to borrowing via the more expensive Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) provided by the Bank of Greece, did not reflect any concerns about the health of the local banking system.

“According to the ECB itself, the Greek banking system remains adequately capitalized and fully protected through its access to ELA,” said the statement.

The Finance Ministry also indicated that the central bank’s decision would not change the government’s negotiating strategy.

“The government is widening the scope of its negotiations with partners and institutions it belongs to each day,” it said. “It remains focussed on the targets of its social relief program, which the Greek people approved with their vote. It is negotiating with the aim of drafting of a European policy that would stop once and for all the self-feeding crisis of the Greek social economy”.

source: ekathimerini.com

French President Francois Hollande (right) speaks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Wednesday.

 The European Central Bank turned up the pressure on the government on Wednesday by lifting a waiver on Greek government bonds, which means that they can no longer be used by local lenders as collateral to borrow from Frankfurt.

The ECB had adopted a special provision to accept junk-rated Greek bonds as collateral but a meeting of its governing council decided late last night that this should no longer remain in place as Athens does not look set to complete the bailout program, which is due to expire at the end of the month.

“The Governing Council decision is based on the fact that it is currently not possible to assume a successful conclusion of the program review and is in line with existing Eurosystem rules,” the central bank said in a statement.

This means that Greek banks would have to borrow through the more expensive Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) program.

The decision came after talks between ECB President Mario Draghi and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in Frankfurt.

The Greek government is hoping that by ensuring local lenders receive liquidity they will be able to buy the treasury bills Athens wants to issue to over the coming weeks. Greece also wants its lenders to raise the 15-billion-euro limit on T-bill issues but sources said that Varoufakis was told in Frankfurt that this would not possible.

“The president has clarified the ECB mandate and urged the new government to engage constructively and speedily with the Eurogroup to ensure continued financial stability,” an ECB source told Agence-France Presse.

“We outlined to him the main objective of this government, which is to reform Greece in a way that has never been tried before and with a determination that was always absent,” Varoufakis said after his session with Draghi.

“We also stated categorically that the debt-deflationary cycle in which Greece finds itself is detrimental to all efforts to reform Greece. He was good enough to explain to us his own constraints.”

Earlier in the day, Greece received the backing of French President Francois Hollande in its efforts to secure a new deal with the eurozone but the European Central Bank appeared reluctant to provide Athens with the funding it would need to reach such an agreement.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met Hollande in Paris yesterday afternoon and the two men discussed the outline of what the new government is trying to achieve for more than half an hour.

Hollande said Europe should show more “solidarity” after the election of the SYRIZA-led coalition in Greece, which he said “underscored that austerity as the only perspective and reality wasn’t tolerable anymore.”

“But there is also respect for European rules, which are imposed on everyone  – France too – and it’s not always simple,” Hollande told reporters with Tsipras at his side. “And then respect for commitments that have been made in connection to debts related to states.”

Tsipras said he hopes that France will play a key role in reshaping economic policy within the eurozone.

“We need a new accord in Europe for the return of growth and social cohesion, and in this effort we certainly need France playing a role of guarantor, a protagonist for this political change,” said Tsipras.

Earlier on Wednesday Tsipras met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels. According to sources, both European officials stressed that Greece must be bound by some kind of agreement if financial support is to continue, pointing toward the need for an extension to the bailout which ends on February 28.

Tsipras and Juncker embraced for the cameras, and the EC president jokingly held Tsipras’s hand as they walked off for talks. But there were no statements to reporters afterward. Tsipras also met with European Council President Donald Tusk and later with Schulz. In a joint press conference with Schulz, Tsipras said talks with European officials were progressing well and insisted that his government wanted to “recorrect this framework, not to smash this framework.”

According to sources close to Tsipras, the talks in Brussels went well and the premier had the chance to present his views while requesting an interim agreement with creditors to act as a bridge between the previous agreement with creditors and a new arrangement.

European officials, however, are keen for some kind of framework to be in place to ensure that ECB funding can continue from March 1.

Meanwhile, as Varoufakis prepares to meet his German peer Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin today, Reuters quoted an official document indicating that Germany wants the new Greek government to go back on pledges to revoke austerity measures. The document, which is said to have been prepared by German officials for a meeting of eurozone finance officials today, noted that the new administration must not roll back any cutbacks or reforms made by previous governments.

Greek government sources immediately rejected such a prospect.

source: Neos Kosmos

Georgios Karavelas drives a taxi in Athens and for the past month has been a silent witness to what ordinary Greeks are doing with their cash.

One passenger, he said, told someone on his mobile phone that he’d withdrawn 25,000 euros from the bank, taken it home, worked loose a tile in the bathroom and stashed the money there. Another took the cash to his village and buried it in the garden. Yet another fashioned a small safe box in the air-conditioning unit on his balcony.

“I can’t fault these people,” said Karavelas, 37. “They were obviously people who had worked hard for their money, with families and jobs, not oligarchs.”

Withdrawals from Greek banks may have exceeded 15 billion euros ($17.2 billion) in the run-up to the elections that catapulted Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party to power, including at least 11 billion euros in January, according to four bankers citing preliminary data. Tensions between the new government, which won on a platform of debt relief, and Greece’s creditors, including Germany, may keep up the pressure.

“Talks with the creditors is going to be a protracted process so you can’t rule out more pressure on deposits,” said Wolfango Piccoli, managing director at Teneo Intelligence in London. “There is plenty of uncertainty and that can make depositors nervous again.”

Greece’s bailout program ends on Feb. 28 and failure to come to an agreement with the troika of lenders from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank could leave the country without funding to repay billions of euros in debt due in the coming months. Germany is prepared to wait until April or May, when Greece hits a cash crunch to strengthen its bargaining position, a person familiar with the matter said.

‘Bank marathon’

The uncertainty is having an effect on the nation’s banks. Tsipras’s pledge to renegotiate Greece’s debt sparked a more than 37 percent selloff in the FTSE/Athex Banks Index in his first week in office. While the shares have since recovered as Tsipras and his government have toned down their earlier statements, worries about Greek banks linger.

An outflow of deposits means they must rely more on ECB funds or so-called ELA funds via the Greek central bank, which needs ECB approval. The ECB will review the Greek central bank’s emergency line today, and can order it to be shut off if it deems it inappropriate. The review procedure takes place every two weeks.

The deposit outflows in the walk up to the elections would rival banks’ losses in 2012 when back-to-back elections in May and June fanned fears Greece would leave the euro.

“The story of the Greek deposits is not one of a bank run but a bank marathon,” said Andreas Koutras, a partner at In Touch Capital Markets Ltd. in London. “The smart money is long gone and there are few accounts with more than 100,000. The true barometer of fear is the amount of hard cash that is withdrawn, not how much is transferred outside Greece. This has gone up the past two months.”

Greek trauma

Five years of wage and pension cuts extracted from successive Greek governments amid political and social upheaval in return for 240 billion euros of loans to stave off financial collapse has had a dramatic impact on the nation’s pocketbooks.

In Dec. 2009, the outstanding balance of deposits in banks was 237.5 billion euros, compared with 160.3 billion euros at the end of 2014, the latest figure from the central bank.

The figure plummeted to 150.6 billion euros at the end of June 2012 on fears Greece would leave the euro. In May and June that year, 15 billion euros in deposits fled the country’s banks, central bank data shows.

More recently, Cyprus, long considered a banking haven, was forced to seize almost half of all deposits of more than 100,000 euros at the country’s two largest banks in return for a 10 billion euro financial rescue, the first time such a tactic had been used in the euro zone.

‘Under mattresses’

In Feb. 2012, then Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that of the 65 billion euros of deposits lost since Dec. 2009, only 16 billion euros had moved outside Greece, with 35 percent of that amount going to the U.K.

“The rest is either here in Greece, or has been taken abroad without a banking transaction,” he said. Greeks have taken out their deposits to invest them “in bonds of other countries, jewels, artwork, gold, put them in safety deposit boxes and, many, unfortunately are holding their deposits at home, under mattresses.”

On Jan. 30, five days after Tsipras’s election, the nation’s banks found themselves busy again. This time for a different reason: it was pay day, when pensioners and wage-earners get their monthly wage and pay their bills.

No money

The teller at National Bank of Greece SA leaned forward to tell one customer something he’s noticed over the past few days.

“Had you come in last week, without warning, I wouldn’t have been able to give you so much cash,” he said in a low voice to the client withdrawing 20,000 euros. “We didn’t have the money.”

He said customers coming in to withdraw funds ahead of the election were for the most part older Greeks worried about their savings, removing cash and stashing it in safe deposit boxes. Another favorite for an older generation of Greeks is to buy gold sovereigns from the central bank.

Karavelas, the taxi driver, said he commiserates with his clients even though he has little to worry about.

“I don’t have deposits,” said the father of two who still has his savings in the bank. “I have about 1,000, 2,000 euros in the bank and that’s for my children.”

source:ekathimerini.com

Με χρεοκοπία απειλείται η Ελλάδα αν δεν τηρήσει τις δεσμεύσεις έναντι των εταίρων της, προειδοποιεί ο πρόεδρος του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου Μάρτιν Σουλτς, σε συνέντευξή του η οποία θα δημοσιευθεί την Πέμπτη στη γερμανική οικονομική εφημερίδα Handelsblatt.

«Αν η Ελλάδα αλλάξει τις συμφωνίες μονομερώς, η άλλη πλευρά δεν θα είναι πλέον υποχρεωμένη να τις τηρήσει», δηλώνει ο κ. Σουλτς και προσθέτει ότι έτσι «δεν θα πηγαίνει χρήμα στην Ελλάδα και το κράτος δεν θα μπορεί να χρηματοδοτηθεί». Αυτή η κατάσταση θα μπορούσε να αποφευχθεί μόνο εάν η Αθήνα τηρεί τις συμφωνίες που έχει συνάψει με την Ευρωζώνη.

Σύμφωνα με τον γερμανό σοσιαλδημοκράτη, «η ελληνική κυβέρνηση δεν έχει άλλη επιλογή: πρέπει να εκπληρώσει τις υποχρεώσεις που ανέλαβε έναντι των Ευρωπαίων εταίρων. Μόνο υπ’ αυτή την προϋπόθεση θα μπορούμε να μιλήσουμε για το εάν εμείς από την πλευρά μας θα κάνουμε παραχωρήσεις προς την Αθήνα».

Μόλις ο κ. Τσίπρας υποχωρήσει, θα μπορούσαν οι Ευρωπαίοι εταίροι να κάνουν κάποια πράγματα για την Ελλάδα. Για παράδειγμα, η ΕΕ θα μπορούσε να φροντίσει ώστε οι πλούσιοι Έλληνες που καταθέτουν τα χρήματά τους στο εξωτερικό να φορολογηθούν στη χώρα τους.

«Αν ο Τσίπρας το ζητήσει, θα βρεθούν τα μέσα και ο δρόμος» για να επιτευχθεί, διαβεβαιώνει ο κ. Σουλτς και διευκρινίζει ότι αυτό θα μπορούσε να αφορά και τις χώρες εκτός ΕΕ με τις οποίες όμως η Ένωση έχει συνάψει σχετικές συμφωνίες.

Πηγή:in.gr

A lesson in Italian style: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is presented with a tie by Italian Premier Matteo Renzi at the end of a joint press conference at Rome’s Palazzo Chigi government office. Photo: Giuseppe Lami

There’s been a definite clash between European Union officials and the new Greek government, including the outspoken national Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, known as ‘Dr Doom.’

The clash in the Greek government’s first week and a half in power is not so much over bailout loans and repayment schedules but over dress style.

Not for the Greeks the traditional suit-and-tie attire of European politics.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gets his collar waggled by European Parliament Chairman Martin Schulz before their meeting in Athens. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS

Almost the entire Greek cabinet appointed last week has adopted the fashion style of 40-year-old Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who steadfastly refuses to wear a tie, even while donning a suit.

European Parliament head Martin Schulz playfully waggled Mr Tsipras’ open collar as the newly sworn-in premier greeted his first foreign dignitary last week.

But by far the most striking fashion trailblazer of Greece’s new Cabinet is Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Dressing to impress: Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in London with Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. Photo: PETER NICHOLLS

The blog-posting, sharp-tongued – some would say arrogant – 53-year-old Australian-Greek dual national has shot to near rock-star status in Greece for both his casual dress sense and his initially confrontational style with Greece’s lenders.

Mr Varoufakis drives to meetings on a motorbike, a backpack across his shoulders. He never wears a tie, never tucks his shirt in and often has his suit collar up. He keeps one hand in a pocket when greeting foreign dignitaries and owns what must be one of the most commented-on coats ever worn by a Greek politician.

His arrival Monday for a meeting in London with British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne sparked a deluge of comments – both positive and negative – as Mr Varoufakis strode up Downing Street in tight black trousers, his knee-length black winter coat and a bright blue shirt straining somewhat at the buttons.

“It was apparent from the photo call on Downing Street that we were witnessing a bit of a fashion moment,” wrote Imogen Fox in the Guardiannewspaper. “There was Osborne, himself riding high on his rebooted fashion skills with his Julius-Caesar haircut and properly fitting suit, shaking hands with a man wearing a Wetherspoon’s-appropriate bright-blue shirt and an early-1990s madchester drug dealer’s coat.”

Mr Varoufakis’ look – and his initial confrontation with Dutch Finance Minister and eurozone finance leader Jeroen Dijsselbloem last week – have gone down well with many Greeks, who praise him for restoring what they see as their lost sense of dignity during five years of a bitter financial crisis. A Facebook fan page titled `V for Varoufakis’ set up over the weekend has earned more than 46,000 `likes’ already.

As Mr Varoufakis headed to Rome after his London visit, his dress sense did not go unnoticed by the Italians.

`’The style of Athens,” the leading Italian daily La Repubblica wrote in a headline near a photo of the Greek minister’s meeting with Mr Osborne, noting his tieless, untucked shirt and big jacket.

`’It speaks volumes about Greece’s desire not to respect any convention,” La Repubblica wrote.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin made a similar gesture in Paris over the weekend, smiling as he took hold of the broad-striped scarf worn by Greece’s European Financial Relations Alternate Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and wrapped it across his neck and over his shoulder.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi went a step further on Tuesday night, giving Mr Tsipras an Italian tie to wear when Greece finally emerges from its protracted financial crisis – after Mr Tsipras had reportedly said before the elections that he’d wear one if Greece reached a debt reduction agreement.

“We want to give Greece a real hand, which doesn’t mean always agreeing with what you say. But we are sure that Greece will get out (of the crisis) and when that happens, we would like it if the premier wears an Italian tie,” Mr Renzi said, sparking laughter among the Greek delegation.

It’s not just the lack of ties.

Eyebrows were raised at the new coalition government’s swearing-in ceremony last week as Zoe Constantopoulou, the proposed Parliament president, arrived in flowing fuchsia trousers and a bright canary-yellow coat.

source:smh.com.au