- Angela Merkel, German Chancellor
After Greek voters supported Alexis Tsipras' government by saying "no" to more austerity in exchange for a new round of bailout funding from its international creditors, Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Finance Minister, unexpectedly announced his resignation. Euclid Tsakalotos is taking over from his notorious and controversial predecessor. Meanwhile, the ECB said that it would keep its Emergency Liquidity Assistance to Greece unchanged at levels announced last Monday. Thus, Greek banks will continue to remain close thought out this week and might resume working at the end of the week, at best. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has hours to prepare a plan to keep his country in the Euro zone, as European leaders meet later in the day in Brussels for another round of talks.
Separately, German factory orders dropped in May as orders from other Euro zone countries fell following a large gain in the preceding month. Industrial orders in the Euro bloc's number one economy decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in the reported month, whereas analysts had expected a 0.4% decline. In the preceding month, the measure gained a revised 2.2%. Measured on an annual basis, orders surged 4.7%. Meanwhile, the Spanish industrial sector remained in expansion for the fourth consecutive month in May, recovering after a slight setback in the preceding month. Spain's industrial production rose 3.4% in May on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, following the previous month's reading of 1.8%.
© Dukascopy Bank SA