deuda archivos - Katoikos

Greece and its creditors finalise an agreement

The tremendous policy over the future of Greece is heating up. The Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has submitted a proposal to break the current impasse in the negotiations, and the creditors have sent him their own proposal to unlock the funds and avoid Greece’s suspension of payments. In return, the government in Athens would have to face tough demands to reform the pension system and the labour market. The creditors’ agreement was cooked up last night in Berlin during the mini summit between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker, ECB president Mario Draghi

Brussels raises the growth forecast for the Eurozone thanks to a boost from the ECB

The European Commission has upped its growth forecasts for the Eurozone and the entire EU after noting the positive effects of the European Central Bank (ECB) debt purchase programme; cheaper oil prices, and the depreciation of the euro. However, this economic improvement will not be uniform across all the member states. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 19 euro members will be up this year by 1.5%, two tenths higher than estimated in February by the EU executive. For the 28 countries in the European Union, the Commission also revised forecasts upwards by one decimal point to 1.8%

Draghi turns on the QE tap

Mario Draghi has fulfilled his promise and put into action the words “whatever it takes” – which he declared at the height of the debt crisis in July 2012 – to save the euro. After the first ECB Governing Council meeting of the year, its president announced the implementation of the much-anticipated Quantitative Easing (QE), a statement that has not only fulfilled but exceeded the markets’ expectations. The Italian banker has led the ECB into unknown territory with a massive sovereign bond-buying plan that will be added to the existing private sector asset purchase program, amounting to a total of €1.14 trillion. The goal is to quell the threat of deflation, and to reactivate economic growth, which remains stagnant in the euro area.