Greece to send loan request to sceptical euro zone as cash reserves burn

Greece’s leftist-led government said it will ask the euro zone on Thursday to extend a “loan agreement” for up to six months, raising prospects of a last-minute deal to keep the heavily indebted country afloat. While European officials worked frantically with Athens to find a formula, the European Central Bank agreed on Wednesday to raise emergency funding for Greek banks, a person familiar with the ECB talks said. But the amount was enough to cover their needs for only a week if nervous Greeks keep pulling their deposits out at the current rate.

We’re a bit used to this — every day there are different reports, and then when we are in a room together things sound completely different.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble

Meanwhile, Greece’s parliament has elected pro-European conservative Prokopis Pavlopoulos as the country’s new president, after he received support from the new left-wing government and main centre-right opposition party. Pavlopoulos’ election ends an impasse over the presidential selection that triggered early general elections last month. The former minister and expert in public law was put forward for the post in a bid to draw much-needed cross party support as debt-laden Greece races to negotiate the new loan deal.

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