Currency

Greek government bonds declined on Friday, with three-year yields rising the most in a week, as the chair of the euro area?s finance ministers? group said governments won?t grant a request by Greece for short-term financing.

?Nobody knows where this is going,? said Peter Schaffrik, London-based head of European rates strategy at Royal Bank of Canada.

Fitch Ratings said in a report on Friday that the eurozone would suffer a significant shock if Greece left, but it would be unlikely to trigger a systemic crisis like that in 2012, or another country?s rapid exit.

According to a Dow Jones Newswire report on Friday afternoon, eurozone officials have rejected a Greek request to issue 4.5 billion euros worth of T-bills.

According to an official's statements to Bloomberg, the European Central Bank will allow to the Bank of Greece to provided nearly 59.5 billion euro to temporary emergency financing mechanism.

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel proved less diplomatic than Wolfgang Schauble on Thursday when meeting with Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis, with the former reportedly saying that "Greece should keep its issues to itself and not convey them to other countries".

The statement was relayed by Reuters.

Greek banks have been given approval to tap an additional 10 billion euros in emergency funding over an existing ceiling if necessary, a Greek government official said in a statement on Thursday.

The European Commission proposed to make 1 billion euro from the Youth Employment Initiative available as early as this year. This change will increase by up to 30 times the pre-financing Member States receive to boost youth employment - reaching up to 650,000 young people and helping them get into work, faster.

By Lorcan Roche Kelly

In a press release that jolted the markets, the ECB announced that it will no longer accept Greek government debt as collateral starting next week. But this news is not necessarily a potential liquidity disaster for Greek banks.

We advised Greece to cooperate with the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund

“We advised Greece to do so and we are optimistic that through talks  a collaboration will be finally achieved ” said White House official.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

Interest rates on deposits are continuing to fall at commercial Greek banks despite the credit sector?s cash flow problems. Bank of Greece data showed yesterday that the average interest rate in December came to 1.82 percent, against 1.88 percent in November and 2.61 percent in early 2014.