- Angela Merkel, German Chancellor
European leaders have failed to break the deadlock in the Greek debt crisis, with the country's future in the Euro bloc remaining uncertain. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been pressured during the summit to accept extremely tough austerity measures in return to a third bailout worth 82-86 billion euros. The draft statement urges the Greek parliament to approve tax and pension reform measures to reduce the country's budget deficit, and it suggests Greece privatize $56 billion of its assets and use the proceeds to reduce its debt. Tsipras has three days to enact demands of European leaders. In case the agreement is not reached, negotiations will begin on Greece's temporary exit from the Euro zone.
Meanwhile, industrial output of France, the Euro zone's second biggest economy, recovered in May, rising 0.4%, when measured on a monthly basis. The increase followed a revised 0.8% decline posted in April. In annual terms, French industrial output surged 2.8%, compared with 0.2% rise a month earlier. At the same time Italy's industrial production rebounded in May following a rather poor performance in the preceding month. Industrial output rose 0.9% on month in seasonally adjusted terms. Measured on an annual basis, production surged 3% in the reported month, following the 0.1% increase in April.
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