Financial crises

By Karolina Tagaris

 Greece's tax police squad raided a busy cafe-restaurant in an upscale central Athens district earlier this year, it discovered two cash registers and an elaborate system of issuing fake receipts -- at least 15,000 of them, over four years.

The IMF announced on Thursday that it would not extend a June 30 date for cash-strapped Greece to repay it 1.7 bln dollars, with a spokesman also saying the country would be in arrears to the Fund.

The first documented case of Greek default was in the 4th century BC. Even in modern times, Greece has spent 90 out of its 196 years in financial crisis… let’s not forget that “chaos” is a Greek word.

4th century BC – 13 Greek city states borrowed from the Temple of Delos but most of the borrowers never made good on their loans and the temple suffered an 80% loss.

Consumer confidence in Germany is beginning to be dampened slightly by the uncertainty surrounding Greece, a poll found on Thursday.

"The so far unsuccessful efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis in Greece and ward off the country's imminent bankruptcy appear to be dampening the economic outlook for consumers," market research company GfK said in a statement.

By Eleni Varvitsiotis

Brussels - Kathimerini has obtained the full proposal submitted by the Greek government to the institutions. All 11 pages can be seen here.

The proposals contain 7.9 billion euros of measures, of which 7.3 are from increases to tax and social security contributions.

Imports of energy and lifesaving medicines top the list of products in jeopardy if Greece defaults on its debt and moves closer to exiting the eurozone.

The threat to vital supplies is increasingly exercising policymakers, companies and traders as an impasse in negotiations between Athens and international creditors provokes alarm in financial markets.

It’s not pretty, but the Telegraph put together a video on what it believes will happen in case of a Greek default, with the primary repercussion being, of course, the dreaded “capital controls” — which mainly affects people that actually have capital in the first place and don’t want government “control” of their cash.

The latest information out of negotiations in Brussels, according to Proto Thema sources, refers to a nine-month extension of the Greek bailout package worth 20 billion euros, while “haggling” is apparently continuing over creditors’ demands for pension reforms and higher tax rates.

Senior EU officials have formally discussed for the first time a possible Greek debt default, Reuters reported on Friday.

Unemployment in Greece has risen again and reached a 26,6% level during the first three months of the year, Katimerini daily reported.