Eurogroup

Greece's benchmark 10-year bond yield tumbled by about 50 percent on Thursday, returning to the 2 percent level from 4.1 percentage points previously, after the key move by the European Central Bank to incorporate Greece in its emergency bond-buying program.

Since the second week of March, the Greek government has been attempting to delay the spread of the virus by shutting down most economic activity, ordering the closure of all shops apart from supermarkets, bakeries, petrol stations and pharmacies.

Greece has secured full fiscal flexibility in the battle to ease the blow to its economy from the coronavirus outbreak as the Eurogroup conference call that Finance Minister Christos Staikouras (right) participated in on Monday decided to allow all eurozone member-states to take every necessary measure to tackle this growing emergency.

European Union finance ministers plan to agree on Monday on a coordinated economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, with the European Commission forecasting the effects of the virus could push the EU into a recession.

Former Finance Minister Yianis Varoufakis will upload all Eurogroup conversations he surreptitiously recorder to his party's website later Saturday.

The global economy is already sailing in the uncharted waters of the asymmetrical threat of the coronavirus.

In the last systemic threat, in 2012, then ECB chief Mario Draghi famously said that "whatever it takes" would be done.

That assurance alone was sufficient to quell the fears of investors and raised the bar for the handling of analogous future crises.

Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who served during the leftist SYRIZA government's first term in 2015, has said that he will be publishing his recordings of negotiations with Greece's eurozone partners and creditors on March 16.

Europe has to grant Greece some fiscal flexibility as the crisis-hit country struggles to deal with both the coronavirus outbreak and the migration crisis, leading economists agree in comments made to Kathimerini. The government expects some good news in this direction next week, but will not be pushing for it.

Eurogroup chief Mario Centeno on Wednesday announced the possibility of exceptions to the strict fiscal rules guiding the eurozone to allow emergency measures for containing the spread and impact of the new coronavirus.

Monday's Eurogroup did not have Greece on its agenda, but a European Commission document leaked on the same day shows the decision to extend the enhanced surveillance of the Greek economy for another six months, as of February 21.