Stathakis sees capital controls in place for few months more

A Greek official told CNN that the country’s banks, which have already been closed for two weeks, won’t open until Thursday.

The Eurogroup of finance ministers has estimated that up to 25 billion euros will be needed to recapitalise Greece’s banks.

They come knowing that the Greek parliament overwhelmingly passed early Saturday a package of reform and austerity measures that the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hopes will convince creditors to grant his country a three-year bailout. “The financial situation of the Hellenic Republic has an impact on Greek banks since the collateral they use in ELA relies to a significant extent on government-linked assets”.

The ECB’s decision, made in a conference call of its governing council, maintains a freeze on emergency liquidity assistance, or ELA, at about €89 billion ($99.21 billion) that has been in place since June 28.

Last week, the ECB raised pressure on Greece further by increasing the amount of collateral required for Greek banks to tap the ELA loans. “The rest will be split in half, which would repay debt and the other half would go toward new investments”.

“ELA can only be provided against sufficient collateral”, the European Central Bank said on July 6. Depositors withdrew about 40 billion euros between December and June.

There are also hints that having held tight to their euros, some traders just been waiting for a good time to sell – and this morning’s rally many have been it. “The agreement on the program, the commitment to implement structural reforms and, more importantly, the 20 July payment to the European Central Bank are likely to be the necessary conditions”.

Mr Stathakis also said he expects a government reshuffle in the coming days, to remove two ministers who did not vote in favour of the government’s bailout plan. A European Union official rejected the idea that the ECB is willing to postpone the debt payment.