Rebound in euro zone credit ratings: overdue or overshoot?

(Reuters) - Rating agencies are falling over each other to upgrade the euro zone's crisis countries, but with debt levels in most still rising and growth and reforms slow, the question is whether the new-found optimism has swung too far.

Greece will require no further aid after bailout exit: Antonis Samaras

ATHENS: Greece will exit its EU-IMF bailout agreement as scheduled in 2014 and will require no further loans, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said today.

Euro zone, IMF to press Greece for foreign agency to sell assets

BRUSSELS: Greece's international lenders will press Athens next month to transfer state-owned real estate to a holding company managed by the euro zone to spur flagging privatisation efforts, officials said on Thursday.

Greek fiscal targets are unrealistic: Bank group

ATHENS: Heavily-indebted Greece was set fiscal targets that were not achievable, in contrast to Ireland, which is emerging as a success story, a global bank lobby group said this week.

Greece bailout funds approved

Greece is to get the latest tranche of bailout funds needed to keep the country going, eurozone finance ministers have said.

Greece caught in trap of rising national debt

ATHENS: Greek debt has turned into a modern version of a nightmare from mythology in which the more the country cuts and taxes to climb the mountain, the deeper down it falls.

In Euro Crisis, Fingers Can Point in All Directions

FRANKFURT — The debate about how to distribute the cost of preserving the euro often centers on a fundamental question that is unspoken but implicit: Who caused this crisis anyway?

Euro zone crisis heads for September crunch

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Over the past couple of years, Europe has muddled through a long series of crunch moments in its debt crisis, but this September is shaping up as a "make-or-break" month as policymakers run desperately short of options to save the common currency.

S&P declares Greek 'selective default' after bailout

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has classified Greek debt as in "selective default" following the deal it made with creditors to reduce its debts.

European stocks rise on Greek bailout hopes

European stock markets rose on Monday on growing signs that a new bailout for Greece could be finalised at last while sentiment got a boost by the latest Chinese move to ease credit.

ECB considers losses on Greek bonds held by national banks

(Reuters) - The European Central Bank is weighing up whether to allow the Greek bonds held in national euro zone central banks' investment portfolios to be subjected to the same writedowns private investors are set to take, central bank sources told Reuters.

Greece crisis talks over EU bailout to resume

Party leaders in Greece's governing coalition are to resume crisis talks on backing a 130bn-euro (£108bn; $171bn) European Union rescue plan.

Eurozone leaders sign up to budget controls

European leaders agreed on a permanent rescue fund for the eurozone, and 25 out of 27 EU states backed a fiscal pact for stricter budget discipline in the eurozone, while a deal on Greek debt is expected in "days".

The magic money tree

IT IS hardly surprising that the markets are having second thoughts about last week's euro zone rescue deal.

Euro Zone Status Quo 'Untenable': Economist

The current situation in the euro zone is "untenable" and policymakers will have to either pursue greater European economic integration or see countries exit the euro, George Magnus, Senior Economic Advisor, UBS told CNBC Tuesday.

"Every crisis takes us closer to the point where an existential decision has to be taken," Magnus said. "This sequential crisis that the euro zone has been through since the beginning of last year must be resolved."

SNB's Jordan: Worse euro crisis may hit Swiss: report

(Reuters) - Big Swiss banks have very little direct exposure to Greece but Switzerland may be affected if a Greek default destabilizes the whole financial system, the Swiss National Bank's vice chairman told a newspaper on Sunday.

In remarks similar to those he made at the SNB's monetary policy review on Thursday and in the SNB's annual Financial Stability Report, Thomas Jordan said a domino effect brought about by a Greek debt restructuring likely would cause further upwards pressure on the Swiss currency.

Ten points on the Euro crisis

1. The EU leaders are at loggerheads over the issue: should Greece be allowed to do a soft, controlled, partial default on its debts which forces banks and pension funds to lose some of the money they lent to Greece? Germany says yes, the European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet says no.

2. The question arises because the first Greek bailout, 110bn euros, did not work. Greece now needs another 85bn euros from the EU/IMF, and has to sell at least 30bn euros of assets on top of that because it cannot borrow in the global markets.

Germany at odds with ECB over Greece

In an open letter to European and international authorities, finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: "Any additional financial support for Greece has to involve a fair burden sharing between taxpayers and private investors."

He warned that if Greee does not get more funding before mid-July, "we face real risk of the first unorderly default within the eurozone".

Greece Readies Crisis-Fighting Steps

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Cabinet is set to endorse additional deficit cuts and asset sales, fending off speculation that the country is headed to a restructuring.

The cost to insure Greek debt against default rose to a record and the yield on its 10-year bonds increased to a euro- era high after Standard & Poor’s said May 20 it may cut Italy’s credit rating. That warning came hours after Fitch Ratings cut Greece three grades.

Greek debt restructure on the cards to stave off euro crisis

European officials have conceded that Greece may have to restructure its debt as part of a second bail-out package to shore up the Mediterranean nation and stave off a crisis in the euro.

A "reprofiling" or "soft restructuring" of bonds held by private investors, defined as a voluntary loan "extension", was floated by Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and president of the eurozone finance ministers, after a Brussels meeting.