Eurozone

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel (photo) condemned a plan to discuss Greece's debts to the eurozone with the leaders of France and Germany on Thursday without including Belgium and other smaller members of the bloc.

Greek banks saw deposit outflows of about 300 million euros on Wednesday, the highest in a single day since a February deal with the eurozone that staved off a banking collapse, two senior Greek bankers familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Eurozone leaders will tell Greece on Thursday that time and patience are running out for its leftist-led government to implement agreed reforms to avert a looming cash crunch that could force it out of the single currency.

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will plead with European counterparts at a summit in Brussels Thursday to release vital funds to help his debt-laden country stave off a looming cash crunch.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

Greek banks are suffering from fresh turbulence due to the tension and the apparent collision course between Athens and its creditors. Bank stocks gave up more than 8 percent of their value on Wednesday, while the outflow of deposits was far greater than on previous days.

Following Wednesday’s meeting in Frankfurt, the European Central Bank decided to increase only by 400 million euro the loan limit from ELA.

As was noted in the meeting, the available balance on pumping liquidity of temporary liquidity mechanism ELA is approximately 3 billion euro.

However, the new loan limit of Greek banks will be reconsidered in next week’s new ECB meeting.

Bulgaria's projected deal to issue euro bonds is expected to price on 19 March, Reuters has reported.

The country "is taking indications of interest" from investors "for three potential euro bonds" with maturities of seven, twelve and twenty years, the newswire quoted an unnamed source as saying.

Governments cannot rely solely on low inflation and easy monetary policy to consolidate recovery and boost employment even though growth prospects are improving in the world's largest economies, the Paris-based OECD said on March 18.

Anti-capitalist protesters clashed with riot police near the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt on March 18 and set fire to barricades and cars, casting a pall over the ceremonial opening of the billion-euro skyscraper.

By Lukanyo Mnyanda

A Greek sale of short-term government securities on Wednesday demonstrates how countries that were at the forefront of Europe's debt crisis have taken very different paths.