Dr. Platon Monokroussos, Chief Market Economist, Deputy General Manager, Eurobank Ergasias S.A
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: Major Asian bourses closed in the black on Friday, with Chinese equity indices ending in a positive territory for the second consecutive week thanks to new government measures to support the domestic equity market. In Europe, major equity indices were little changed in early trade on Wednesday, as their recent rally ran out of steam. In FX markets, the US dollar was the major outperformer this week following recent Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s comments which reinforced expectations for an interest rate hike later this year.
GREECE: The European Union finance ministers approved in principal yesterday a bridging loan of €7bn to Greece, in order for the country to cover its immediate financing needs. This will allow Greece to meet the c. €3.5bn bond payment to the Eurosystem on 20 July and clear its arrears of c. €2bn to the IMF.
CYPRUS: The Bank of Cyprus announced the sale of its Russian subsidiary, Uniastrum Bank, as part of its deleveraging and de-risking strategy.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
ROMANIA: The finance ministry sold on Thursday the planned RON300mn in November 2018 T-bonds at an average accepted yield of 2.27%.
CESEE MARKETS: Emerging stock markets closed broadly higher on Thursday, after the Greek Parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of a bill incorporating the conditionality required to formally initiate negotiations between Greece and its official creditors for a 3-year ESM loan facility. News that the ECB decided to increase emergency liquidity assistance to Greece and ECB President Mario Draghi’s comments that recent market uncertainty has not altered expectations for a broader recovery in the Eurozone also appeared to provide support. Along similar lines, regional currencies and government bonds broadly firmed on Thursday.
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