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The euro is going bananas over reports of a bailout deal for Greece

Mike Bird   

The euro is going bananas over reports of a bailout deal for Greece
Finance2 min read

Merkel Tsipras

REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras go to shake hands after addressing a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin March 23, 2015.

The Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers is currently meeting, and it may be Greece's last hope for a bailout deal.

In less than two weeks, Greece owes €1.5 billion ($1.70 billion, £1.08 billion) to the IMF that the government almost certainly doesn't have.

Though almost everyone went into today's meeting insisting that a deal was very unlikely, markets are spiking and slumping on reports coming out of the summit.

Germany's Die Zeit reported an offer originally - saying that the European Commission and European Central Bank would sign off on shifting €10 billion (£7.18 billion, $11.40 billion) earmarked for bank recapitalisation to the government to use for everyday spending, while Athens would be allowed to issue another €2 billion (£1.44 billion, $2.28 billion) in bonds, which would be bought by Greece's banks.

And that's without the involvement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There's no detailed description of the reforms Greece would be required to undertake to get the cash.

There's no confirmation of the Die Zeit report, and the summit is ongoing.

According to Politico's Ryan Heath, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis presented five pages of proposals to the group - that could be a positive thing, with new ideas, or it could be simply a restatement of what's already gone.

The uncertainty is causing some pretty choppy movements in the euro-dollar exchange rate, which had been basically stable through the day:

eurogroup eurusd

Investing.com, Business Insider

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