Greek businesses and savers have been hauling their money out of the country’s banks at a rate not seen since the 2012 summer.
Speculation swirled at that time and again at this of a potential default or exit from the eurozone, making the markets jittery.
Around €4 billion has been removed from Greek bank accounts this month, according to reports.
An executive at one of the banks told the Wall Street Journal that the move was “strictly on a precautionary basis”.
As a consequence two of the country’s largest banks have applied to the Greek central bank for emergency liquidity assistance to keep them running.
Greek banks first applied for ELA in 2011, and only exited the programme in May last year.
Crucial elections will be held on 25 January and the anti-austerity party, Syriza, is leading in opinion polls.
Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, wants to write off some of Greece’s debt while remaining in the eurozone. Nevertheless, his policies are sufficiently different to warrant reservation among his fellow eurozone member states, and with Germany in particular.
Greece’s Eurobank and Alpha Bank both applied for ELA, with other banks expected to follow. Their approach was to Greece’s central bank rather than the European Central Bank because they simply did not have the collateral to finance loans.
Nevertheless, the ECB will have to give approval for the emergency funding.
Comments
As Malcolm pointed out earlier - The expat post below ties directly to the extreme difficulties and obstructions with inward investment into Portugal. And how INTENTIONALLY FRAGMENTED everything still is after 30 years.
It is from a UK resident wanting to set up an Alojamento Local licence for her property. Not tourism - just renting her property or a room in it.
The Portuguese Government information team confusingly telling us that Camara's all STILL interpret things differently ! Nothing remotely centralised through Portugal Tourism.
Some municipals want the application on-line. Some just need a simple statement to notify. Some will inspect straight away, some later. Some want various certificates - energy, water, gas, electricity; others not. Telling the tax people after getting the licence - or whilst waiting for it ?
And - still showing classic anti EU - only a native can get the digital signature,so no foreigners allowed ! Does this help the EU forward or yet again continue to delay recovery ?
http://www.expatfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=40787/