Difficult Greek talks undermine the euro

Clearly the unexpected clarity of the UK election result weakened the euro overnight against sterling, but it was already suffering as uncertainty over the Greek bailout had been increased yesterday.

The Greeks are still trying to make the case for softening the hardships and austerity cuts but a brick wall is being hit and given the Greek governing party was elected on the basis that it wouldn’t accept anything else an impasse seems to be being reached. It is going to be a long weekend of negotiations as timescales are now measured in days rather than weeks.