Greece

The Greek economy will remain under close supervision for years after the completion of the third bailout deal, the president of the Euro Working Group (EWG), Thomas Wieser told insider.gr in an interview published on Wednesday. Even though he is confident the cash-strapped country will be able to recover, Wieser says that a lot of work needs to be done first, starting with the timely completion of the third bailout review, the Financial Times reported. He also suggests that additional measures may be needed in 2019 and 2020 depending on the course of the budget next year.

Greece is back as the litmus test of investor faith in the future of the eurozone. But this time, the news is positive, the Financial Times reported. Having been shut out of markets for the past three years, Greece has dipped its toe back into the debt waters on Tuesday with a five-year bond and investors dived in. The yield, or return on the bond, came in at 4.625 per cent — Greece paid 4.95 per cent the last time it issued a bond under the centre-right government of Antonis Samaras in 2014 (yields fall when a bond’s price rises).

It is precisely five years since Mario Draghi declared the European Central Bank ready “to do whatever it takes” to preserve the euro. With the eurozone’s recovery in full swing and the ECB starting to edge towards an exit from stimulus, there could be few better ways to mark the anniversary than a successful sovereign bond issue by Greece — the biggest casualty of the single currency area’s debt crisis, the Financial Times reported.

The International Monetary Fund is keeping the pressure on in Greece, the Financial Times reported. Having approved “in principle” a largely symbolic cash injection for the country, the IMF is pressuring its eurozone partners to provide more realistic budget targets and ambitious debt relief as its price for involvement in the Greek bailout. Late on Thursday, the IMF’s executive board voted to give a precautionary green light to a “standby arrangement” for Greece.

Greek assets are trading steadily this morning as investors await the International Monetary Fund’s latest verdict on its involvement in the country’s bailout programme. The IMF’s board is due to vote on an agreement between the fund’s staff and EU creditors for a precautionary cash injection should the IMF get more guarantees from Brussels on debt relief measures for Greece, the Financial Times reported.

Greece’s budget has been formally declared compliant with with European Union budget standards, bolstering the nation that received its latest round of rescue aid earlier this week, as it mulls its first bond sale since 2014. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, announced that it will recommend the removal of its so-called excessive deficit procedure for Greece, a step taken when a member state’s budgetary shortfall gets too big, according to a statement on Wednesday.

It’s been a long time coming but Greece finally has its latest tranche of eurozone bailout cash, ensuring Athens will not be defaulting on its creditors later this month, the Financial Times reported. The European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone’s bailout fund, today approved a €8.5bn cash injection after the country successfully completed its second review as part of an €86bn rescue agreed in 2015.

Shareholders in National Bank of Greece have confirmed the sale of 75 per cent of the group’s wholly-owned insurance subsidiary to Calamos-Exin, a US-Dutch consortium, for €718m. National Insurance, the largest Greek insurer, was offered for sale under a restructuring plan agreed with the EU and International Monetary Fund as part of the country’s current €86bn bailout, the Financial Times reported. NBG, the country’s second-largest lender, undertook to dispose of non-core assets and focus on domestic banking in line with benchmarks set by creditors.

With the dust settled on last week’s deal to avoid a Greek summer debt default (again), analysts and economists are turning to the country’s longer-term prospects in the eurozone, the Financial Times reported. Greece’s current bailout programme comes to an end in just under 14 months’ time when the country will either have to stand on its own feet after eight years of rescues or ask for yet another bailout. Key to any judgment about Greece’s solvency will be its ability to tap the financial markets.

Greece's prime minister said Wednesday that his bailout-reliant country will "very soon" be in a position to tap bond markets again, which would be Greece's first test of investor sentiment since 2014. Alexis Tsipras told his cabinet that this was a result of last week's deal with European creditors, which eased fears Greece might face another brush with bankruptcy this summer, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. That's evident in the sharp fall in the interest rates the markets are ascribing to Greek government bonds.