Eurozone

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.

Cash-strapped Greece had been hoping that the European Central Bank -- which is about to pump billions into the eurozone economy -- would help ease its torment, but so far the ECB has been markedly reluctant to come to its aid.

These are the key issues over which they are at loggerheads:

The euro area's sources in Brussels said a list of reforms sent by Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis has neither been approved nor disapproved, contrary to media reports in Greece, which claimed that the list was rejected.

The Greek government has a backup plan if a portion of a 7.2 billion euro bailout tranche is not dispersed in March, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said late on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank, meeting in Cyprus on Thursday, is set to update its economic forecasts and reveal details of its new bond purchase programme, analysts said.

Greece will also be high on the agenda of the ECB's decision-making governing council, following the recent eurozone deal to extend aid to the debt-wracked country, the experts said.

By Alessandro Speciale

European Central Bank policy makers meet in Cyprus on Thursday with investors expecting President Mario Draghi to flesh out details of the 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) quantitative-easing plan he announced in January. Here are five questions traders are seeking answers to:What will ECB- style QE look like?

One of the reasons as to why different countries have different problems may have to do with the fact that they also have different solutions. With so many ways of approaching problems, is it any wonder that Eurogroup meetings sometimes resemble a Tower of Babel?

The Bank of Cyprus group is putting up for sale a total of 41 properties across Greece which in most cases are leased out to third parties and belong to the group?s subsidiary firm, Cyprus Leasing SA.

Nonbinding offers are expected next week, while the final, binding bids will be submitted in May.