- Alexis Tsipras, Greece Prime Minister
Greece repaid 3.4 billion euros to the European Central Bank on Thursday, as Euro zone finance ministers disbursed 13 billion euros to the Greek government and set aside another 10 billion euros to recapitalize the Greek cash-deprived banks. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who heads the Eurogroup, said the reform-for-aid deal formally approved on Wednesday would hopefully provide Greece with a new lease on life. At the same time, Daniele Nouy, the head of the ECB's banking supervisory arm, was confident that Greek banks will recover when the crisis is over, as they were relatively strong before turmoil started. Meanwhile, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced he had resigned, sparking another political drama in the country. Greece now heads for its fourth parliamentary election since 2012, which is reported to take place on September 20.
At the same time, Ewald Nowotny, ECB Governing Council member, said that the central bank's asset purchase programme aimed to underpin the Euro region's economy will not end early. Nowotny underlined that inflation in the currency bloc remained much below the target, with the central bank unlikely to meet the inflation goal soon. On top of that, the most recent devaluation of the Yuan may hurt the world economy, Nowotny added. Nevertheless, he ruled out the possibility of currency wars among countries as one of the tools to increase competitiveness of exports.
© Dukascopy Bank SA