020 7898 0500It was a fairly quiet day for the euro yesterday as markets eyed fresh reform proposals from Greece after the country requested a new three-year bailout on Wednesday. There was little news on whether these terms were still being negotiated. Greece’s request for more emergency loans still remains in the balance and will largely depend on whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras makes a huge turnaround on tax increases and most importantly pension cuts after five months of ongoing negotiations. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that ‘the actual examination can only begin once the full package has been put on the table’.
Today we have industrial production data from France and Italy, which are both expected to improve greatly from last month’s figure.
So we enter a third weekend of Greek drama with absolutely no idea where the euro will be on Monday and whether or not the Greek banks will be able to open any time soon. Perhaps politicians enjoy this brinkmanship even though it brings so much hardship and unnecessary suffering and uncertainty.
