Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras contained a rebellion within his radical Syriza Party, winning parliamentary approval for the second set of reforms required to start talks with the Eurozone and the IMF on a financial rescue deal.

A first set of reforms, that focused largely on tax hikes and budget discipline triggered a rebellion within Syriza last week and was passed only with the backing of pro-EU opposition parties. The bill that legislators voted on this week covered rules for dealing with failed banks and speeding up the justice system - two more conditions set by Greece’s international creditors to open negotiations on an €86 billion rescue package that will keep Greece afloat for the next three years.

In the meantime, the minutes of the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Bank of England held on July 9 show that all policymakers agreed to hold interest rates at 0.5%. However, there were signs some committee members are edging closer to backing a rate rise.

The minutes also showed that a number of members are concerned about a rising risk of UK inflation. For these members, the Greek debt crisis was a key factor in voting to keep rates unchanged. The minutes said that for most members, keeping rates on hold would still have been appropriate even without the problems in Greece and the volatility in China’s financial markets.

Finally, in the United States, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report this week showing that existing home sales saw a rise in June to reach their highest level in over eight years. NAR said existing home sales climbed 3.2 per cent to an annual rate of 5.49 million in June from a downwardly revised 5.32 million in May.

Economists had expected existing home sales to edge up to an annual rate of 5.40 million in June from the 5.35 million originally reported for the previous month.

With the bigger than expected increase, existing home sales are now at their highest level since reaching 5.79 million in February of 2007. NAR also said existing home sales are up by 9.6% compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.

This report was compiled by Bank of Valletta plc for general information purposes only.

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