MacroPolis

Greece was buoyed by the European Central Bank on Thursday, following its announcement that the emergency pandemic purchase programme (PEPP) will be extended beyond the end of 2020.

Tuesday’s Eurogroup teleconference ended in disagreement and is set to be repeated on Thursday, although Greece did secure a boost from the European Central Bank, which decided to allow Greek sovereign bonds to be used as collateral by local banks.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due on Thursday afternoon to give his third public address in two weeks in connection to the coronavirus.

After seeing its sovereign debt market decimated within a period of four weeks, Greece breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday night when the ECB announced that it will include the country in its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP).

During the first visit to Athens of the new Economic Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, the Greek government stepped up its efforts to secure more fiscal space that will allow it to continue its policy of tax cuts.

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced last Friday the beginning of the stress test process for 2020, an EU-wide exercise that will be led by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and will examine 35 significant euro area banks, which are directly supervised by the ECB and cover 70 percent of banking sector assets in the eurozone.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras was due to meet the CEOs of Greece’s four systemic banks on Thursday as the government appears to be stepping up its efforts to secure approval for the Asset Protection Scheme (APS) aimed at reducing the giant pile of NPLs on their balance sheets.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras was due on Friday to take up the government’s drive to convince Greece’s eurozone partners that the country is on the right track following this summer’s elections.

Greek banks’ Eurosystem funding rose by 539 million euros month-on-month (MoM) in June according to the monthly Bank of Greece's (BoG) financial statement.

Greek banks’ Eurosystem funding fell by 399 million euros month-on-month (MoM) in May, the monthly Bank of Greece's (BoG) financial statement showed.