Unverified report tells Caribbean nation it ‘faces hard times’ and ‘a crisis looms’ and it must restructure debts to bridge coming financing gapsThe struggling Caribbean island Puerto Rico needs to restructure its debts to bridge financing gaps in coming years, in what could be a precedent-setting move, according to a copy of a report by former IMF economists posted on websites of the island’s media.

Markets across Asia slide and $35bn is wiped from Australian stock market on what is expected to be a torrid day following the closure of Greek banksMarkets suffered across Asia on Monday as Greece shut down its banks for a week ahead of an increasingly likely debt default.Oil prices declined and the euro edged down against the dollar, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index fell 2% to 20,283.98 points. The Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.4% at 4,178.56 despite China’s surprise weekend interest rate cut.Related: Greek debt crisis: the key points of Athens bank controlsRelated: Australian shares plunge as $35bn wiped off stock market over Greek crisis Continue reading...

All banks closed for at least a week, cash withdrawals capped at €60 a day and foreign money transfers banned ahead of referendum on bailout termsEarly on Monday morning, the Greek prime minister, Alex Tsipras, published a decree in the official government gazette setting out the capital controls to be imposed on the country.The decree – entitled ‘Bank Holiday break’ – was signed by Tsipras and president Prokopis Pavlopoulos.The same applies to the payment of wages and pensions--they are also guaranteed. #Greece Continue reading...

Report on island’s financial stability by former IMF economists has the potential to rattle bond prices if its predictions are pessimisticPuerto Rico is set to release a key report by former IMF economists on its financial stability on Monday, which could point towards a fix for the island but has the potential to rattle bond prices if its predictions are pessimistic.Puerto Rico, struggling with a $73bn debt load and faltering economy, is facing crunch time this week with a deadline to agree on a budget as well as a 1 July deadline to make a $655m payment on its general obligation debt, while its struggling utility Prepa (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority) faces a $400m payment.Related: Puerto Rico in crisis: weighed down by $73bn debt as unemployment hits 14% Continue reading...

As the Abbott government gets set to unveil Australia's new target for greenhouse gas reductions after 2020, Lenore Taylor asks Professor Ross Garnaut and Frontier Economics managing director Danny Price: how do we intend to reach the target? Continue reading...

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Greek banks will not open until July 7 in an attempt to avoid financial panic, after ECB capped the emergency funds keeping them running

Following news banks will remain closed until after Sunday 5 July referendum, people all over the city are desperate to access their moneyAll over Athens they were queuing, but the lines outside the National Bank branches were by some distance the longest – because the National Bank supplies the banknotes, and lots of other Greek banks, by midnight on Sunday, had no more of those.“People are feeling very concerned … very insecure,” said Maria Poulimeniou, outside the National Bank on Eleftherios Venizelos street in Kallithea, a southern Athens suburb. Continue reading...

Deadlines have come and gone before, but Tsipras’s referendum pledge has finally forced a denouement. Creditors must rethink a failed austerity policy, and the political risk of painting themselves as the enemies of the Greek peopleSomething was bound to snap in Greece, and now it has. Over six years, jobs have vanished, hope has been smothered and a generation of progress in living standards has been reversed. Suicides soared among stricken individuals, and the collective sense of sovereignty shrivelled. The nation has been crucified on the cross of a currency that it should never have been allowed to join. It awakes to discover the extent of restrictions on accessing its bank accounts.Step back from the immediate row over proposals and counter-proposals, under which Alexis Tsipras drew a sharp line on Friday with his midnight pledge for a referendum, and this is the real backdrop to Athens’s abrupt decision to stop playing the European game. Fiery and inexperienced, the Greek prime minister has breached all the rules of diplomacy, failing to warn his counterparts about his plebiscite before going public, and perhaps depriving himself of a last bit of leverage in the haggling over bailout terms. His rhetoric contrasts his own mandate with the presumptions of callous technocrats, ignoring the mandates of creditor governments. That threatens the space in which a European club of 28 members is fated to find compromise. And the question he will put to the voters – whether they accept the creditors’ terms for extending a bailout that is now set to finish five days before Sunday’s vote – is arguably a nonsense.Related: Greece crisis deepens as banks close for a week after weekend that shook euro Continue reading...

We call on David Cameron to support the organisation of a European conference to agree debt cancellation for Greece and other countries that need it, informed by debt audits and funded by recovering money from the banks and financial speculators who were the real beneficiaries of bailouts (Greek leader calls last ditch referendum on bailout, 27 June). We believe there must be an end to the enforcing of austerity policies that are causing injustice and poverty in Europe and across the world. We urge the creation of UN rules to deal with government debt crises promptly, fairly and with respect for human rights, and to signal to the banks and financiers that we won’t keep bailing them out for reckless lending.

For Georgios Karvouniaris, his sister Barbara, and many thousands like them, whether Greece stays in the eurozone or not is unlikely to have any effectOn a steep, gardenia-scented street in the north-eastern Athens suburb of Gerakas, in one corner of a patch of bare ground, stands a small caravan.Plastic mesh fencing – orange, of the kind builders use – encloses a neat garden in which peppers, courgettes, lettuces and beans grow in well-tended raised beds. Flowers, too.Related: Greece crisis: a disaster for Athens and a colossal failure for the EURelated: The moral crusade against Greece must be opposed | Zoe WilliamsRelated: Greece crisis could be a Sarajevo moment for the eurozone Continue reading...

Warning about potential bank closures echoes similar advice issued in the US and Australia as European Central Bank caps emergency funds to countryThe Foreign Office has updated its advice for those travelling to Greece with a warning that access to banking services in the country may become limited at short notice.The change in advice comes as Greece teeters on the brink of defaulting on its debts, which could trigger an exit from the euro or the closure of the banking system. Continue reading...

After three crises in as many days, the collective performance of the eurozones governments inspires little hope or confidence in their crisis managementFive years from its inception, the world’s biggest bailout of a sovereign state will grind to an excruciating halt on Tuesday, theoretically leaving Greece high and dry and on its own under a leftwing government bitterly accusing the EU elite of deliberately using the country as a neo-liberal laboratory.If the experiment has been a disaster for Greece, it is also a colossal failure for Europe, with the result that at the very apex of leadership the EU nowadays resembles an unhappy assembly of squabbling politicians locked in what could not be called an “ever closer union”. Continue reading...

The idea that Greece partly deserves its fate reflects an order in which wealth trumps democracy. We should fight a narrative that enfeebles us all‘This is our political alternative to neoliberalism and to the neoliberal process of European integration: democracy, more democracy and even deeper democracy,” said Alexis Tsipras on 18 January 2014 in a debate organised by the Dutch Socialist party in Amersfoort. Now the moment of deepest democracy looms, as the Greek people go to the polls on Sunday to vote for or against the next round of austerity.Unfortunately, Sunday’s choice will be between endless austerity and immediate chaos. As comfortable as it is to argue from the sidelines that maybe Grexit in the medium term won’t hurt as much as 30 years’ drag on GDP from swingeing repayments, no sane person wants either. The vision that Syriza swept to power on was that if you spoke truth to the troika plainly and in broad daylight, they would have to acknowledge that austerity was suffocating Greece.Related: Greek crisis live: Banks to stay shut on Monday - reportsAt the moment, Germany knows best. How do we know they know best? Because they are the richest Continue reading...

BIS says governments needed to rely less on monetary policy and more on structural reform to secure sustainable growthThe international body that represents the world’s central banks has issued a stark warning that an unprecedented period of ultra-low interest rates mask deep weaknesses in the global economy and threaten to be the trigger for the next financial crisis.In its annual report, the Basle-based Bank for International Settlements says that what used to be considered “unthinkable” risks becoming the “new normal”, with clear risks for future stability. Continue reading...

Wages are rising again: but families who turned to the Tories in May will not forgive a government that rewards their votes with a net fall in incomeNext year, average wage rises will double to 4% and the economy will be booming. Exports will flourish and private investment will return to pre-crisis levels. Unconfined joy will spread from the south-east northwards, and west to the Cornish constituencies captured by the Tories from the Liberal Democrats.The optimistic forecasts do not stop there. Unemployment will continue to fall, productivity will rise, and the Bank of England, concerned that the UK’s runaway success is about to generate the return of inflation, will start to put up interest rates at a gentle pace.Middle income families are spending only a proportion of their gains from a 2% wage rise. They are clearly nervous Continue reading...

As George Osborne makes his welfare cuts, the response from the party does not necessitate a great lurch to the rightThere is decency left in public life after all! In the course of an evening at the Mansion House in which he announced some bizarre budgetary targets, George Osborne found the time to pay a warm tribute to his long-time antagonist, former shadow chancellor Ed Balls. Not only that: there was spontaneous applause in honour of the man who, but for the unexpected result of the election, would have been standing in Osborne’s place, unveiling a somewhat more appealing economic strategy.As my dear friend the late Alan Watkins used to say: “Politics is a rough old trade.” But I have noticed since the election that the dignitaries of the City of London are not alone in expressing, alas somewhat belatedly, their admiration for Mr Balls.There has been much coverage about the Tories' £12bn of welfare cuts; rather less of the £8bn of tax cuts Continue reading...

With the country edging closer and closer towards default, our panel examines the current stalemate, the factors behind the crisis and what Greece can do nextThe shock decision of Alexis Tsipras to call a snap referendum for 5 July, just like the socialist prime minister George Papandreou had tried to do in 2011, has torpedoed any chance of reaching an agreement this weekend. Greece will almost certainly default, or at least will get into arrears if it refuses to – or simply can’t – pay the 1.6bn euros it is due to the International Monetary Fund on 30 June.Related: EU ministers refuse bailout extension for Greece as referendum loomsInsisting on the status quo full of more austerity produced an increasingly weaker Greece Continue reading...

Euro finance ministers have refused to extend Greece’s bailout following shock decision to hold a referendum

Extensive Guardian analysis of eurozone meetings shows ministers spent a lot of the last five years talking about cash-strapped countryAt least 87* separate EU summits and meetings have been partly or entirely devoted to Greece and its financial crisis over the past five years, for only fitful progress on resolving the basic issue, a Guardian analysis reveals.With European finance ministers meeting once again in Brussels on Saturday to discuss the Greek debt crisis, scrutiny of European commission documents and archive news reports has found nearly 90 separate days where EU heads of government or finance ministers met to agonise over the debt crisis or chew over various bail-out and reform plans. Continue reading...

Alexis Tsipras says government will campaign for no vote as Athens tells finance ministers in Brussels that Greek people need to decide country’s futureGreece has closed the door on attempts to resolve the bailout crisis by announcing a snap referendum, a senior eurozone minister has said.Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers for the single currency, said he was disappointed by the surprise plans to stage a popular vote on debt financing proposals. Continue reading...

Prime minister returns from Brussels and tells Greece that terms offered by creditors ‘clearly violate the European rules’In a dramatic move that will put Europe on tenterhooks, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras told his fellow citizens last night he would call a referendum on the bailout accord that international creditors have proposed to keep the debt-stricken country afloat.

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Many people have grave doubts about the economic and political partnership that gave rise to the single currencyIn the past 10 days, there have been two demonstrations in Athens in support of Greece’s continued membership of the euro and one to urge prime minister Alexis Tsipras and finance minister Yannis Varoufakis not to make concessions in their negotiations with its creditors. Quite a few people have been to all three.This seemingly contradictory approach echoes Syriza’s rhetoric: one of its campaign slogans was “We will change Europe.” But it also reflects public opinion.Related: Creditors plan to ringfence Greek economy if Tsipras refuses to give in Continue reading...

Eurozone finance ministers to plan for economic breakdown and social unrest if Greece does not accept terms for five-month bailout extensionEurozone finance ministers and Greece’s creditors are to draw up emergency measures on Saturday to cope with a default by the debt-ridden country unless the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, accepts the creditors’ terms for a five-month extension of Athens’ bailout.Related: The Eurogroup meeting - the key weekend for GreeceRelated: Greek debt crisis: the 20 key moments Continue reading...

China’s Shanghai composite index falls more than 7% in mass sell-off after six months of frenetic buying driven by a state clampdown on property investmentChinese stock markets plunged on Friday as investors rushed to sell over fears that frenzied buying in recent months had sent share prices to unsustainable levels.The Shanghai composite index, which reached a post-crash record of 5,166 earlier this month, has since lost nearly 1,000 points, down more than 7% at the last session to 4,193. The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 7.9%.

The chancellor talks up the self-employed, but their lives are precarious. The left must wake up to their plightIf booming levels of self-employment are an indicator of a thriving economy, then Greece is the powerhouse of Europe. Just under a third of the population of this austerity-ravaged nation are self-employed, more than double the EU average. Spain is another go-getters’ paradise, it seems: with half an entire generation out of work, self-employment among the young has surged. And then there’s Britain, where around 40% of the rise in jobs since 2010 is down to self-employment. If our rulers are to be believed, here is entrepreneurial flair and British dynamism in action, a vindication of the government’s “long-term economic plan”. But the plight of the self-employed is being ignored. It is time that the left began championing their cause.Related: Self-employment surge across UK hides real story behind upbeat job figuresTories would say he’s a go-getter. 'I’m a single bit of paperwork away from being the focus of all their bile,' he says Continue reading...

When the taxpayer is taking on so much of the cost of in-work benefit, and the employee getting so much of the blame, there’s really only sheer nerve and hypocrisy left to be admired

Leaked diplomatic note reveals prime minister discussed how exit from eurozone might help Greece fix economy, but acknowledged risks involved

Eurozone finance ministers have failed to break the long-running deadlock between Greece and its creditors

A new report argues that credit agencies’ failure to properly account for climate risks could lead to the next global financial crisisCredit rating agencies such as Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s are miscalculating the risks of climate change, which could lead to the next big financial crisis, a new report claims.

Finance ministers will meet on Saturday to attempt to thrash out a deal before Monday’s markets openGreece’s creditors have set the country a weekend deadline to avoid default and stay in the eurozone, after more than 24 hours of non-stop Brussels negotiations at the highest level resulted in stalemate.After talks between Athens and its creditors failed to reach an agreement on Thursday, a further meeting of eurozone finance ministers will be held on Saturday in a bid to achieve a breakthrough. With the German chancellor Angela Merkel insisting that a deal must be reached before markets open on Monday morning, Greece is now running out of time to secure an accord and make a €1.6bn payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday. Continue reading...

In his article, Matthew d’Ancona (Osborne’s coup: converting Labour to fiscal conservatism, 22 June) accepts the conventional wisdom that Labour’s prodigal spending after 1997 made worse the global financial crisis a decade later. He quotes David Cameron asserting in 2010 that Labour had “maxed out its credit card” and Chuka Umunna’s rueful question: “If government can’t run a surplus in the 15th year of economic expansion, when can it run one?” The fact is that debt-to-GDP ratio fell from 42.5% in 1996-97, the year Labour took power, to 35.9% in 2006-07, the year before the banks failed. Moreover, no government surplus, however large, could have funded the £300bn exposure the UK government was forced to take on to keep the banks open, nor the fact that when, as a direct result of the bank failures, GDP fell 6% in 2009-10 – one of the largest and fastest falls in history – and tax take fell 18%. This was what caused the deficit, not prodigal spending on health, education and welfare, nor Labour’s failure to run a surplus.

Michael Sharp says customers are cautious about spending despite seemingly buoyant economyThe boss of Debenhams has warned that the government’s plans for a further round of deep spending cuts are weighing on consumer confidence despite the apparent health of the economy.Michael Sharp, the retailer’s chief executive, said that although customers are starting to feel better off they are cautious about spending because of the government’s gloomy tone and its decision to stick with plans for £12bn of welfare cuts. Continue reading...

Eurozone finance ministers meeting ends without agreement after fourth diplomatic failure in eight days

The financial crisis in Greece is now nearly six years old. It is a timeline peppered with violent protest and rancorous diplomacy. Now, finally, the end appears in sight. Here are the 20 key momentsGeorge Papandreou’s new socialist government reveals a large gap in Greece’s accounts. He admits the budget deficit will be double the previous government’s estimate (subscription) and will hit 12% of GDP. Fears that Greece could default on its debts grow as the prime minister says the economy is in “intensive care”.

Instead of acceding to the troika’s devastating demands, Syriza should free the country from the trap of the common currency – if the Greek people agreeA few days ago the Greek government submitted a list of proposals hoping to break the deadlock with the “institutions” – the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. The government basically agreed to tough primary surpluses: 1% in 2015 and 2% in 2016. To achieve these targets it proposed to raise VAT on a range of widely consumed goods as well as imposing a host of taxes on enterprises and families of “high” income. It also proposed substantial savings on pensions. The measures added up to roughly €8bn over 2015-16, and would be immediately implemented.The package is certainly deflationary at a moment when the Greek economy is again on the threshold of recession. There is little doubt that it would contribute to output contraction and higher unemployment in 2015-16, particularly as there is little prospect of being offset by an investment programme funded by the EU. It is a major retreat by the government of Syriza.For those who look at the EU without rose-tinted glasses, there is no surprise regarding the attitude of the lenders Continue reading...

Confederation of British Industry survey suggests retail sales will have grown 0.9% in the second quarter of the year, say analystsBritish retailers reported slower sales growth in June but sales remained above average for the time of year, according to an industry survey.City analysts said the figures pointed to healthy retail sales growth of about 0.9% in the second quarter of the year, giving a boost to the economy.Related: Consumers are spending their extra cash away from the high streetRelated: Debenhams boss says austerity plan is denting high street confidence Continue reading...

Where should Sierra Leone’s post-Ebola economic recovery start? Our experts offer 20 steps to getting the country open for businessStart by assessing the underlying causes of the crisis: A thorough post-Ebola needs assessment must be done to outline solutions that will provide jobs and stimulate the economy in the short term but also to identify long-term changes for a recovery to be sustained and inclusive. Dylan Sogie-Thomas, private sector adviser, Office of the President, Freetown, Sierra LeoneRelax the quarantine restrictions: This is the most immediate change that needs to happen. It’s these restrictions not the disease itself which caused the economic problems. Dr Peter Davis, principal, Consilience Global, Oxford, UKRelated: Sierra Leone fieldpost: the first female undertaker for Ebola victimsRelated: Ebola can be transmitted sexually for weeks after recovery - education is crucialRelated: Ebola: how to prevent a lethal legacy for food security Continue reading...

Bitcoin was heralded as the future of money, but it's not yet broken through to the mainstream. Will it ever? Continue reading...

Negotiations in Brussels between Athens and its creditors break down again as optimism over new Syriza proposals evaporatesGruelling negotiations between Greece and its creditors broke up without agreement as lenders warned the country that it must accept more austerity if it is to avoid defaulting on its debts.A third meeting of eurozone finance ministers in less than a week was called to a halt on Wednesday evening amid fresh deadlock over an agreement on greater spending cuts in Athens in exchange for rescue funds.Membership Event: Guardian Newsroom: Can Greece be saved?Related: Alexis Tsipras's homework has been thrown back in his face Continue reading...

Prime minister’s proposals to creditors prove so divisive among MPs that even if deal is accepted by lenders he faces a battle to gain his parliament’s approvalThe internal faultlines in Greece’s governing Syriza party grew wider on Wednesday as its members digested the sheer scale of concessions being demanded to avert a bankruptcy and remain in the eurozone.With the battle lines now firmly drawn between Athens and its creditors, senior Syriza figures took rhetorical potshots at the tactics employed by the debt-stricken country’s lenders as prime minister Alexis Tsipras attended back-to-back talks in Brussels.Related: Alexis Tsipras's homework has been thrown back in his faceMembership Event: Guardian Newsroom: Can Greece be saved? Continue reading...

Angry negotiations in Brussels as Greece’s latest proposals are heavily amended by its creditors Continue reading...