ATHENS: Athens said Friday it was still hopeful for an 11th-hour deal to stop it defaulting on its debt, as despairing Greece savers withdrew their cash from the country’s troubled banks ahead of fresh talks next week.
“Those who invest in crisis and terror scenarios will be proven wrong,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s office said, even as reports surfaced that Greece’s banks had been forced to seek a new injection of liquidity from the European Central Bank.
Greece has less than two weeks to break the deadlock in talks with its creditors to unlock the last €7.2bn tranche of its international bailout or face a messy exit from the euro and even the European Union. Ahead of a fresh round of emergency talks between Athens, the EU, ECB and IMF scheduled for Monday, Greeks reportedly stepped up withdrawals from the nation’s troubled banks despite the central bank insisting the financial system was stable.
Savers took out €1bn on Thursday, bringing total withdrawals to €2.6bn over three days, financial website Euro2day reported. Sources said the Bank of Greece appealed to the ECB, which increased the emergency liquidity level available to Greek banks on Friday. State agency ANA reported the funding cap was raised by €3.3bn.
