DUBLIN: The Financial Times is reporting that the IMF’s executive body has been told by its staff that Athens’ reforms don’t go far enough and the fund should not be involved in the troika’s third, €86bn bailout. The paper says:
The American, Irish and Spanish economies are powering ahead, the latest GDP figures showed. The Irish economy has grown to €189bn and is now bigger than in the “Celtic Tiger” boom days of 2007, before the credit crunch and global recession struck.
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has called for an internal ballot (“referendum”) within his divided Syriza party on the bailout conditions on Sunday, although his preference is to hold an emergency party congress in September (after Greece is expected to have sealed its new bailout deal with the troika). In a defiant speech in an old movie theatre in Athens to Syriza’s central committee, he defended the government’s decision to accept the bailout.
European stock markets have been buoyed by upbeat company results, including from Siemens, Nokia and Deutsche Bank, although concerns over China are evidently still a drag. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 is up 0.5%. Germany’s Dax is back in positive territory, up 0.1%, after turning negative, France’s CAC is 0.4% ahead and the FTSE 100 index in London has gained 0.3% to 6649.61.
