European stocks have bounced back slightly (well, leveled, more than anything) on news that China and Italy are in discussions about “significant” purchases of Italian bonds and investments in strategic companies. Greece will probably get that next round of funding, but Europe still needs to approve it. Here are some interesting numbers if Greece does go bang.
Even though Silvio Berlusconi says he doesn’t “give a fuck” and wants to leave “shitty Italy,” this is a good thing for Europe and will probably provide some sort of comfort, for the time being at least.
It’s little wonder that China is looking to diversify their investments a little. The talk is that one third of their total foreign investments sits in US bonds – not an ideal place to be right now.
Deputy Greek Finance Minister, Filippos Sachinidis, said in an interview on television channel Mega, responding to questions on how much longer the government will be able to pay wages and pensions:
We are trying to make sure the state can continue to operate without problems.
Read between the lines: they have money until October.
On Sunday, the Greek government approved a new property tax that will make sure it will comply with the terms to qualify for their next tranche of their bailout package.
Anyway, here are some very interesting numbers, should Greece go bang:
Japanese banks hold $432 million in Greek debt.
Spanish banks hold $540 million in Greek debt.
US banks hold $1.5 billion in Greek debt.
Italian banks hold $2.35 billion in Greek debt.
UK banks hold $3.4 billion in Greek debt.
French banks hold $14.96 billion in Greek debt.
German banks hold $22.65 billion in Greek debt.
Greek banks hold $62.8 billion in Greek debt.
The European Central Bank holds $54.7 billion.
And those are just the big players.
In other financial news, Prince Harry broke the world record for a currency trade yesterday in Canary Wharf: $24.5 billion.
It was for a September 11 charity memorial day at the BGC Partners day in London’s Canary Wharf. It was his brother’s record that he broke.
Huge.
[Sources: Bloomberg, BusinessInsider, Reuters]
