Greek banks shut till Thursday

Athens, The Greek government has announced that the bank closures introduced on June 29, will be extended to July 16 (Thursday), a media report said.

A statement issued by the finance ministry on Monday said the banks will remain closed also on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The statement was issued after the European Central Bank's (ECB) governing council decided during a teleconference held earlier on Monday to leave the financing cap for Greek banks through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) unchanged, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Eurozone leaders agreed a conditional deal on Monday to provide up to 86 billion euros (about $89 billion) of financing for Greece over three years.

It included an offer to reschedule Greek debt repayments "if necessary", but there was no provision for the reduction in Greek debt that the Greek government had sought, a BBC report said.

Parliaments in several Eurozone states also have to approve any new bailout.

The bailout is conditional on Greece passing all the agreed reforms – including raising tax revenue and liberalizing the labor market – in parliament by Wednesday.

Finance ministers from all 28 EU countries are holding a scheduled meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, where they will discuss Greece's continuing debt crisis.

The IMF announced earlier on Tuesday that Greece had gone further into arrears by missing a debt repayment for the second consecutive month. It had been due to pay 456 million euros ($500 million) on Monday and now owed 2 billion euros (about $4 billion).

(IANS)