The Greek Debt Crisis and the Markets

PUBLISHED: 30 Jun 2015 @ 09:10 | Comments (0) | More info about Fiona Craig

The euro fell as the prospect of a Greek exit from the Euro, or Grexit, moved ever closer. At one point it fell below $1.10 after the Greek government failed to come to an agreement with its creditors at the weekend.

Banks in Greece will be closed all week, with capital controls limiting the amounts that can be taken out of ATMs. This will stop the whole banking system from collapsing in advance of the referendum to be held next Sunday when the populace will vote on the bail-out deal.

The Greek banks are in trouble, with deposits having fallen to their lowest point in eleven years, and their value down 15% since November. People have been pulling their savings out of the banks ever since the last election brought the Syriza left-wing government to power. When the ECB announced on Sunday that its emergency loan program, which had been propping up the banks, would not be expanded, the flight of cash accelerated, prompting the decision to close the banks.

Now Greece is on course to miss its repayment to the IMF of over 1.5 billion euros, due by midnight tonight (Tuesday). If that happens, it’s going to make it even harder for the ECB to continue extending its emergency loans.

So what does this mean for the markets? The FTSE (FTSE:UKX) fell nearly 2% yesterday, and then opened another 0.7% lower this morning. The Dax in Germany and the Cac 40 in France are also down. Meanwhile, the Euro has fallen sharply against the dollar and the pound.

It’s clear there are more days of turmoil ahead.

For more on the Greek debt crises, go to ADVFN’s Greek Crisis page: http://uk.advfn.com/greece-crisis.

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