Tuesday, June 30, 2015

WORLD_ European shares keep sliding as Greece misses debt deadline

ABC NEWS

European shares keep sliding as Greece misses debt deadline


By finance reporter Simon Frazer
Updated about 5 hours ago
Wednesday, 1 July 2015

European markets fell further overnight as Greece missed a key deadline to make a massive loan repayment, though Wall Street did bounce back modestly from its Greek debt blues.

The Greek government made a last minute bid for a fresh eurozone bailout package, though the request came far too late to allow it to meet its 1.5 billion euro obligation to the International Monetary Fund.

"I confirm that the SDR 1.2 billion repayment (about 1.5 billion euros) due by Greece to the IMF today has not been received. We have informed our executive board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared," said the IMF's director of communications Gerry Rice.

"I can also confirm that the IMF received a request today from the Greek authorities for an extension of Greece's repayment obligation that fell due today, which will go to the IMF's executive board in due course."

Greece also asked eurozone countries for a new funding mechanism with no ties to the IMF and worth nearly another 30 billion euros over two years, but was quickly rebuffed ahead of this weekend's referendum.

"We'll negotiate about absolutely nothing before the planned referendum is held," German chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin.

Key European leaders have suggested the vote on Sunday will amount to a decision on whether Greece wants to retain the euro as its currency, as the "yes" and "no" camps have held rival rallies in Athens.

European investors were hardly reassured by the developments, with the Euro Stoxx index closing down another 1.3 per cent, or 45 points, to 3,424.

The German DAX lost 1.25 per cent (138 points) to 10,945, the CAC 40 in France fell 1.6 per cent (80 points) to 4,790, and London's FTSE 100 dipped 1.5 per cent (100 points) to 6,521.

The markets that were hardest hit yesterday and seen as most vulnerable to Greek contagion got off a little more lightly though; Spain's IBEX 35 slipped 0.8 per cent (84 points) to 10,770 and Italy's FTSE MIB closed down 0.5 per cent (109 points) to 22,461.

There was far more optimism across the Atlantic, or investors simply decided they overestimated the likely fallout of a Grexit.

Having been hit with its biggest fall of the year yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just over 0.1 per cent (23 points) higher at 17,620.

The broader market gained more ground, with the S&P 500 adding nearly 0.3 per cent (5 points) to 2,063.

There was also positive news on the home front for US traders, with private research indicating American consumer confidence rose to near its highest levels since the global financial crisis.

Futures trade suggests the Australian share market will follow Europe into the red this morning; the ASX SPI 200 was 29 points, or 0.5 per cent, lower at 5,368 at 7:50am (AEST).

West Texas crude oil rose overnight to $US59.43 a barrel, but spot gold fell to $US1,172 an ounce.

Iron ore is also lower at $US59.30 a tonne.

The Australian dollar was up against all the major currencies; at 7:50am (AEST) it was buying around 77 US cents, 69.1 euro cents, 49 British pence and 94.3 Japanese yen.

From other news sites:

* The Australian: US stocks rise but European markets slump on Greek crisis

* Daily Mail: FTSE CLOSE: Footsie tumbles again as Greek deadlock continues; US stocks flat despite upbeat consumer data
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WORLD_ GREECE_ What a Grexit would look like

NEWS.COM.AU

What a Grexit would look like


1 hour ago
July 01, 2015 10:22AM

VIDEO: Greece deadline passes without bailout deal

GREECE has become the first developed nation to default on an International Monetary Fund loan after the midnight deadline expired, with the country losing access to existing financing.

“I confirm that the SDR 1.2 billion repayment due by Greece to the IMF today has not been received,” said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice.

“We have informed our Executive Board that Greece is now in arrears and can only receive IMF financing once the arrears are cleared.

“I can also confirm that the IMF received a request today from the Greek authorities for an extension of Greece’s repayment obligation that fell due today, which will go to the IMF’s Executive Board in due course.”

The government was given until midnight (0800 AEST) to get its act together and pay back $2.33 billion (€1.6 billion) of the €325 billion it owes to the IMF.

After Greece made a last-ditch effort to extend its bailout, eurozone finance ministers decided in a teleconference late on Tuesday night that there was no way they could reach a deal before the deadline.

“It would be crazy to extend the program. So that cannot happen and will not happen,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

The last country to default on an IMF loan was Zimbabwe in 2001.

Greece is now edging closer and closer to a situation never before seen in the eurozone. No more shared currency. No more eurozone.

The drachma — Greece’s former currency — could return and cut in half the worth of every euro saved by already struggling Greek citizens.

If Greece is forced out of the eurozone, there is no precedent for what will happen next.

But Greek Prime Minister Alex Tspiras admits the country cannot pay, and his 11th hour appeal to European finance ministers for yet another bailout package was rejected outright.


__________

Alexis Tsipras ‏@tsipras_eu
We have justice on our side. If we can overcome fear, then there is nothing left to fear. @ErtSocial #ert #Greece
__________

Panicked citizens are living under economic lockdown with banks shut and withdrawals limited to €60 a day at ATMs, leading to a boom in sales of safes as people look for somewhere secure to store their cash.

This morning the Greek Finance Ministry said it would open 1000 banks across the country to allow pensioners to withdraw €120 per week to live on, however many ATMs around the capital remain empty.

With no money to pay, no more financial aid and a possible exit from the eurozone, experts are now speculating on the worst-case scenario facing Greece.



Thousands of people have turned out to protest in Athens, saying ‘no’ to the bail out offer from the EU. Picture: AFP. LOUISA GOULIAMAKI Source: AFP


WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?


If Greece does exit the euro, Greece would either need a new currency, or revert to its old one, the drachma, but the transition would be long and legally complex.

Economists say the value of the drachma might be about half that of the euro so the savings of Greek citizens could be worth half what they are today, even if they keep repaying debts in euros.

If Greeks vote against the package of reforms in Sunday’s referendum, the country could be forced to leave the eurozone. No country has ever left the shared currency, and there were never any plans put into place for such an event to occur. It is uncharted territory.

In the event Greece does leave the euro, the government would need to pay its bills by printing IOUs, which would become a parallel currency.

There is a precedent for this. In 2009, a bankrupt California began printing IOUs to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments in lieu of cash.

How Greece would go about determining a rate of exchange for the new currency is entirely unclear. “If I had 100 euro in the bank when I went to sleep, I might wake up with 100 drachmas,” University of Sydney senior economics lecturer Mark Melatos said.



Currency traders watch markets in Seoul, South Korea. There is real fear the crisis could send shock waves through financial markets around the world. Picture: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon. Source: AP


The problem, obviously, is those drachmas would be worth much less in real terms than euros — hence ordinary Greeks’ desperation to pull cash out while it’s still worth something.

About five billion euros ($A7.32 billion) were reportedly withdrawn in May alone.

Greece households are already stuffed full of cash, hidden in any place people can find. Euro notes are spent sparingly, and barter systems have begun cropping up in many communities.

“If a new currency was introduced, it would surely be worth much less than half the euro. The person in the best position is someone with a whole heap of euros sitting in their pocket,” Dr Melatos said.

How long it would take the real exchange rate to stabilise is again unclear, as there are very few precedents. “This doesn’t happen very often, and that’s part of the problem. It’s very rare that a country switches currencies, which is what’s causing all the fear.”

There is also the risk of inflation of the new currency. Petrol, for example, would become very expensive due to the cost of oil imports. However, the lower exchange rate could also help to restart the country’s economy.

“There would be a short-term shock but it could actually be quite good for Greece, it would suddenly become a very low-cost place and that would be good for its shipping and tourism,” UNSW economist Tim Harcourt said.

In the long term, many economists agree that moving to its own currency would be the best thing for Greece. But the process would be extremely painful.

“All the options are bad, but the best option is probably to leave and have their own currency,” Dr Melatos said.

“As far as I can tell, the debt can’t be repaid, at least not in full, so they may as well default as you would in a normal bankruptcy.

“Sure it will be a lot of pain in the short term, but the alternative would have required other euro countries to give even more money to Greece in perpetuity.”

READ MORE: http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/what-a-grexit-would-look-like/story-e6frflo9-1227422412614
 

***

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NEWS & OPINION_ Greece's bailout expires, country defaults

Yahoo!7

Greece's bailout expires, country defaults
AAP
– 1 hour 16 minutes ago
Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Related Content



AAP


Greece has slipped deeper into its financial abyss after the bailout program it has relied on for five years expired and the country failed to repay a loan due to the International Monetary Fund.

With its failure to repay the 1.6 billion euros ($A2.31 billion) to the IMF, Greece became the first developed country to fall into arrears on payments to the fund.

The last country to do so was Zimbabwe in 2001.

After Greece made a last-ditch effort to extend its bailout, eurozone finance ministers decided in a teleconference late on Tuesday night that there was no way they could reach a deal before the deadline.

"It would be crazy to extend the program," said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the eurozone finance ministers' body known as the eurogroup.

"So that cannot happen and will not happen."

The brinkmanship that has characterised Greece's bailout negotiations with its European creditors and the IMF rose several notches over the weekend, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced he would put a deal proposal by creditors to a referendum on Sunday and urged a "No" vote.

The move increased fears the country could soon fall out of the euro currency bloc and Greeks rushed to pull money out of ATMs, leading the government to shut its banks on Monday and impose restrictions on banking transactions for at least a week.

Greeks are now limited to ATM withdrawals of 60 euros a day and cannot send money abroad or make international payments without special permission.

But in a surprise move late on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis hinted that the government might be open to calling off the popular vote, saying it was a political decision.

The government decided on the referendum, he said on state television, "and it can make a decision on something else". It was unclear, however, how that would be possible as Parliament has already voted for it to go ahead.

With its economy teetering on the brink, Greece suffered its second sovereign downgrade in as many days when the Fitch ratings agency lowered it further into junk status, to just one notch above the level where it considers default inevitable.

The agency said the breakdown of negotiations "has significantly increased the risk that Greece will not be able to honour its debt obligations in the coming months, including bonds held by the private sector".

@y7finance on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook


***

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conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01072015

___________

Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC