Stock market crashes

With troika envoys due to return to Athens in the coming days for talks on pending reforms, the government is seeking to finalize its position on key issues with an aim to shifting the debate to the prospects for putting Greece’s relationship with foreign creditors on a different footing and to discussing debt relief.

Peripheral European government bond yields fell on Friday as a surprise decision by the Bank of Japan to expand its monetary stimulus saw investors pile into riskier assets.

Yields on Spanish and Italian debt fell by 5 and 6 basis points respectively, while Greece led with a 22 basis point decline.

[Reuters]

Croatia unveiled new tax policies on Thursday, which include a tax on bank savings, lower rates of income tax and new procedures for VAT collection.

The announced tax on bank savings of 12 per cent will affect about 400,000 citizens with money in savings accounts, about 50,000 of whom have 10 billion euro in savings, earning them 300 million euro from interest annually.

Eleni Chrepa & Georgios Georgiou

Cyprus could benefit from strong bank stress test results and positive economic signs to pull off an Irish-style bailout exit and make a full return to the bond market, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said.

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Greek 10-year bond yields rose by one percentage point on Thursday, on mounting worries over the likelihood of early elections next year and a risky plan to leave the bailout program a year ahead of time.

Ten-year Greek yields last stood at 8.86 percent. Yields for the three- and five-year bonds rose above 7 percent. [Reuters]

Greece might secure a further safety net of credit from its eurozone partners if it manages to meet the strict terms required to exit its bailout at the end of this year, a source close to discussions told Reuters yesterday.

The International Monetary Fund’s denial of reports that it will host a discussion on Greek debt relief in November and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s insistence that no talks on the next phase for the Greek economy can be held until the troika review due to begin at the end of September, have heightened concern in Athens that it could be in limbo for the next few months.

The Ukraine crisis and the sanctions against Russia are already affecting Bulgaria's vacation properties sales on the Black Sea coast, reports Investor.bg.

According to the analysis, sales of vacation properties to Russians, who were the most numerous buyers, and as a whole, are already dropping.  

Yes, according to many analysts, who underline the country’s credit boom. For example, a research note by Standard Chartered, which was published on July 21, noted China’s total debt to GDP ratio had surpassed 250 percent. You could have shrugged “so what” if it was not the world’s the world’s biggest trading nation and second-largest economy.

By Rebecca Christie

The European Union wants to know how far its national governments are willing to go to ensure that the euro area’s new bank resolution authority has the funds it needs in an emergency.