Greek Finance Minister reportedly told BBC Radio 4, that the government will examine imposing capital controls as of Sunday night and closing banks as of Monday. Varoufakis statement comes as the board of European Central Bank is currently deciding whether it will continue Emergency Liquidity Assistance to Greek banks.
It is logical that the Greek government will have to look into the issue to impose capital controls and closing of the banks, pending the ECB decision. Greekce’s Central Bank has invited heads of banks for two meetings later on Sunday.
What is worth noting is that Varoufakis’ interview has not been aired yet but it was just a teaser by BBC edutor Nick Sutton, now all over the Greek media, newspapers websites (protothema, newsit,) and television channels (MEGA TV).
.@yanisvaroufakis tells @BBCMarkMardell: Greek Govt will be looking overnight at imposing capital controls & closing banks on Monday. #tw2
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) June 28, 2015
An hours later, the Greek Finance Ministry denied reports according to which Varoufakis allegedly told BBC radio that the government will look at night if you proceed with capital controls or closure of banks Monday.
“Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis never said the Greek government prefers to impose capital controls. Contrast, and has repeatedly stated that the government considers that the capital controls are not compatible with the concept of monetary union, ” said the statement the Ministry of Finance.
In addition to the statement, Yanis Varoufakis tweeted:
Capital controls within a monetary union are a contradiction in terms. The Greek government opposes the very concept.
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) June 28, 2015
Earlier on Sunday, the BBC reported citing “sources” that the ECB was to decided to stop ELA for Greek banks on Sunday.
On its part, REUTERS reported (at 1 pm) citing “people familiar with the ECB telephone conference” that
“the European Central Bank policy setters are considering keeping Emergency Liquidity Assistance open to Greek banks on Monday but imposing a higher valuation discount on the security they offer in return for the funding, people familiar with the matter said.
If the haircut on the assets Greek banks give for Emergency Liquidity Assistance is increased, it w
ould, however, curb their use of such finance.”
I cannot tell you right now what the ECB decides but when it decided to impose capital controls on Cyprus, it had stated that “ELA cannot be cut as long as the country was on EU/IMF program.”
PRESS RELEASE
“21 March 2013 – Governing Council decision on Emergency Liquidity Assistance requested by the Central Bank of CyprusThe Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided to maintain the current level of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) until Monday, 25 March 2013.
Thereafter, Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) could only be considered if an EU/IMF programme is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks.” via ECB official website.
Greece’s program ends on June 30th 2015.
Of course, there is quite some speculation by correspondents to Brussels as to what the ECB decides, option and doomsday scenarios, which I cannot upload here.
UPDATE: BBC gave a link to listen to Varoufakis interview here
Varoufakis in Bild: “But until today in the discussions was always said by lenders side ‘we could get any compromise that we want, but it must conform exactly to the memorandum of the institutions'”
As i told many times before. The enemies of the people of Greece and all people of europe will use every trick in the book to undermine democracy in Greece.
The people and the Greek government must resist, be vigilant and must be ready to defend themselves and democracy.
OXI/NO! No to humiliation and submission! THis is an historic opportunity to break with the cycle of misery and submission, and not only in Greece!
So far the Greek government has used every opportunity to increase the level of misery and suffering of the Greek people. The call of a referendum at the eleventh hour of the negotiations is just another example of that.
What “negotiations”?
With shell-gamers like Dieselblüm and lots of different drafts so that the little woman and the little woman gets confused?
And the only chance to get the money back is when the croupier will have to run for cover to not get busted and some money drops by chance out of his pockets.
The only negotiations with the criminal class of big-biz-lackeys is to get out of the noose and grab the neck of the croupier.
Of course, the intentions of the Greek government were good. The result of their work so far — not so much.