The European Central Bank (ECB) board of directors decided on Wednesday to maintain the limit through the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) scheme to 80.2 billion euros. In the past few weeks, the ECB kept providing liquidity to Greek banks through ELA. Last week, it provided 200 million euros to Greek banks. However, on Wednesday it decided not to raise the liquidity limit. According to information from the Bank of Greece (BoG), Athens has about 3 billion euros available. Analysts say that the decision was taken because in the last few days cash outflow from Greek banks was reduced compared to previous weeks. German Finance Minister Schaeuble: It is up to Athens to decide whether it needs to introduce capital controls German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said it is up to the government in Athens to decide whether Greece needs to introduce capital controls. According to an interview in Die Zeit, published on Wednesday, Schaeuble said that he believes it is possible for the Greek government to resort to capital controls. Schaeuble dismissed the notion that Germany’s tough stance during the Eurozone crisis is responsible for Greece’s hardships. “In most of the other member-states things are improving due to the low oil price and the weak euro. But not in Greece. The German government is not to blame for everything,” he said. The German Minister also criticized Greece for not implementing the necessary reforms in order to get further financial aid. “The new government is saying: we want to keep the euro but we don’t want the program any more. That doesn’t fit together,” Schaeuble said.
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