Greece closes banks, limits ATM withdrawals amid economic crisis

Greece government has announced a shutdown of its financial institutions for six business days starting from Monday and has also placed strict limits on cash machine withdrawals.

The measures are aimed at averting financial panic and the collapse of the banking system.

Greek authorities ordered lenders to stay closed until July 6 while the country’s central bank restricted ATM withdrawals to 66 dollars per day.

The Hellenic capital market commission announced that Athens stock market would be closed throughout the six-day bank holiday.

The commission said the controls were imposed to stop money from flowing out of the country, after a weekend in which anxious Greek depositors increasingly withdrew money out of their accounts.

The Bank of Greece recommended the measures on Sunday after the European Central Bank refused to increase the emergency credit that has sustained Greek banks.

Meanwhile, Alexis Tsipras, the country’s prime minister, has urged Greeks to be patient and retain their composure, assuring them that their bank deposits were “fully secure”.

The country’s place in the euro zone was thrown into deep uncertainty at the weekend when European finance ministers rejected Greece’s request for an extension to its bailout programme.

This was after Tsipras called for a referendum on the economic terms demanded by creditors in order to unblock the last tranche of bailout funds.

Greece must make a debt repayment of 1.7 billion dollars to the International Monetary Fund, which along the European Union Commission and the European Central Bank oversees Greece’s international bailout.