Eurozone

By Chryssa Liaggou

 Draghi adds 500 million euros to ELA, giving banks a breather

By Vassilis Ziras

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet with Bank of Greece Gov. Yiannis Stournaras within hours to be briefed on ECB decisions taken during a board of directors’ meeting in Nicosia this week.

Bailed-out Cyprus will return to growth in 2015 following a three-year recession, a survey showed Thursday, after the island won praise from European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

An economic review by the small EU member?s second largest bank, Hellenic, said Cyprus could be on course for marginal 0.5 percent GDP growth from a decline of 2.3 percent in 2014.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Thursday that the ECB is prepared to restore a key channel of financing for Greek banks once Athens reaches a debt deal with its eurozone partners.

"The ECB is the first to wish to restart lending to the Greek economy providing the conditions are in place," Draghi told a news conference.

The European Central Bank will launch into quantitative easing  next week having increased its economic growth forecasts for this year and next.

President Mario Draghi said the first bond purchases with new money would take place on March 9.

Greece cannot rely on the European Central Bank to raise a limit on Athens' issuance of short-term debt, ECB President Mario Draghi suggested on Thursday.

He also said the rules meant the ECB could not buy Greek bonds under its new asset-buying programme.

By Stefan Riecher

The European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at record lows as investors wait for President Mario Draghi to reveal more details of his 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) bond-buying plan.

The European Central Bank has increased the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) funding ceiling for Greek Banks by 500 million euros, according to international media reports.

That means that Greek banks can now access ?68.8 billion euros, to cover their liquidity shortages.

Greece's jobless rate rose to 26 percent in December from an upwardly revised 25.9 percent rate in the previous month as the economy shrank slightly in the last quarter of 2014, statistics agency ELSTAT said on Thursday.