Greece's two governing parties, which back tough austerity measures, have lost their parliamentary majority in Sunday's election. With almost all votes counted, centre-right New Democracy is leading with 19%, down from 33.5% in 2009.
Italy is in recession, final data confirmed Monday. Italy's economy shrank 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2011, following a 0.2% decline in GDP in the third quarter.
Greece approved bitter new austerity measures on Tuesday, slashing the minimum wage and chopping pensions as Athens began implementing measures demanded by international lenders in return for a 130 billion Euro rescue package.
The Euro edged up on Monday after Greece's parliament approved an austerity bill that put the country a step closer to securing much-needed funds, though market players worried about more hurdles before lenders seal a bailout deal.
The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold on Thursday and altered its assessment of risks to the economic outlook as investors focus on the ECB possible role in helping Greece avoid default.
The majority of Germans feel the Euro currency bloc would be better off if debt-crippled Greece left it, a poll published in mass-selling newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed.
Greece's sovereign debt restructuring appears to be following the footsteps of Argentina's disorderly debt default of 2002, a creditor that is participating in the negotiations warned this week.
Standard & Poor's will likely downgrade Greece's ratings to selective default when the country concludes its debt restructuring, but that will not necessarily destroy the credibility of the European Union, an official with the ratings agency said on Tuesday.
Like in Colombian Nobel Prize Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” Fitch rating agency said on Tuesday that Greece would default on its debt, although it anticipated that such a default was likely to take place in an orderly manner.
Stock markets and the Euro traded lower Friday as Greek debt swap talks were put on hold and France’s Finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the country’s credit rating.