Last weekend, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shocked European policymakers by announcing a referendum to be held today, asking voters whether to accept the latest offer from Greece’s creditors. Mr Tsipras is campaigning for a rejection of the reform measures (i.e. for a ‘no’ vote), arguing that a ‘no’ vote would strengthen his hand in the negotiations.

The European Central Bank later capped the emergency funds through which Greek banks are kept afloat. As a consequence, Greece found itself constrained to introduce capital controls and to keep banks closed until at least tomorrow. Withdrawals from ATMs have been limited to €60 per day per account.

In the meantime, the eurozone’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate came in at 11.1 per cent in May, remaining stable compared with April, and decreased from 11.6 per cent in May 2014, data released by Eurostat showed last week. This is the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the eurozone since March 2012.

The recent falls in unemployment should support consumer spending, on top of the appreciable boost to purchasing power coming from very low consumer price inflation.

Separately, Eurostat reported that inflation in the currency bloc eased to 0.2 per cent in June, in line with forecast, and declining from the 0.3 per cent registered in May.

Finally, non-farm payrolls in the US rose by a seasonally-adjusted 223,000 in June, the Labour Department said last week. But revisions to the previous two months showed weaker job creation than initially estimated.

A separate report showed that the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 per cent in June, compared to 5.5 per cent the previous month. This is the lowest rate since April 2008, but reflects a low share of workers participating in the workforce as the participation rate fell to 62.6 per cent in June, from 62.9 per cent in May.

The June participation rate was the lowest since 1977. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted that payrolls would rise by 233,000 in June and the unemployment rate would fall to 5.4 per cent.

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