AFP, Athens :
Greece announced early Monday it will shut banks for a week and impose capital controls, pleading for calm after anxious citizens emptied cash machines in a dramatic escalation of the country’s debt crisis.
Banks will be closed until July 6 — the day after a referendum on bailout proposals-with a 60-euro ($65) limit on ATM withdrawals, but foreign tourists, a vital engine of the Greek economy, will be exempt from the restrictions, a decree published in the official government gazette said.
In the first market reaction to the growing risk of a Greek euro exit, the single currency tumbled in Asia Monday morning.
Stock markets also fell sharply, with Tokyo, Sydney, Shanghai and Hong Kong each sinking more than 2 percent by Monday afternoon.
The drastic measures to protect Greece’s banking system against the threat of mass panic came after the European Central Bank said it would not increase its financial support to Greek lenders, despite early signs of a chaotic bank run.
It capped a weekend of high drama that began with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s unexpected call for a July 5 referendum on creditors’ latest reform proposals after bailout talks in Brussels collapsed.
In response, angry EU and IMF creditors rejected a request to extend the nation’s bailout beyond its June 30 expiry date, sparking fears Greece could default on a key debt payment to the IMF due the same day and possibly crash out of the eurozone.
Greece announced early Monday it will shut banks for a week and impose capital controls, pleading for calm after anxious citizens emptied cash machines in a dramatic escalation of the country’s debt crisis.
Banks will be closed until July 6 — the day after a referendum on bailout proposals-with a 60-euro ($65) limit on ATM withdrawals, but foreign tourists, a vital engine of the Greek economy, will be exempt from the restrictions, a decree published in the official government gazette said.
In the first market reaction to the growing risk of a Greek euro exit, the single currency tumbled in Asia Monday morning.
Stock markets also fell sharply, with Tokyo, Sydney, Shanghai and Hong Kong each sinking more than 2 percent by Monday afternoon.
The drastic measures to protect Greece’s banking system against the threat of mass panic came after the European Central Bank said it would not increase its financial support to Greek lenders, despite early signs of a chaotic bank run.
It capped a weekend of high drama that began with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s unexpected call for a July 5 referendum on creditors’ latest reform proposals after bailout talks in Brussels collapsed.
In response, angry EU and IMF creditors rejected a request to extend the nation’s bailout beyond its June 30 expiry date, sparking fears Greece could default on a key debt payment to the IMF due the same day and possibly crash out of the eurozone.
