Eurogroup fails to reach agreement with Greece

Euro area finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday failed to reach an agreement with Greece, but a deal was still possible in coming days, the president of the body said.

After four hours of talks Greece and its creditors were unable to break the current impasse. That prompted European Comission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis to 'tweet' that “[the Eurogroup] sent a strong signal for Greece to engage seriously in negotiations. The Eurogroup stands ready to reconvene at any moment.”

In a follow-up press conference Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the ball was clearly in Greece´s court to seize that last opportunity.

However, any deal on reforms needs to be credible both in terms of the Greek programme itself as well as for the whole of the Eurozone.

That followed earlier reports in German daily Die Zeit that the ECB and the European Union would offer to Greece an extension of aid until the end of the year, without the International Monetary Fund being involved.

Euro/dollar rose to an intraday high of 1.1434 - close to the neckline of an inverted 'head and shoulders' pattern - after the above headline broke on newswires.

In parallel, there was 'market chatter' that a summit of Eurozone heads of government to be held in Greece, on Monday, will be called.

"The failure of the Greek government and its official creditors to reach a compromise on the disbursement of bailout funds has several implications. One of them is a rising risk of capital controls being implemented in Greece. If this scenario were to materialize, Greece would become the second eurozone country, after Cyprus, to restrict capital movements," wrote Unicredit economist Tobias Ruhl in a research note e-mailed to clients.