Greece's stock market to reopen as bailout talks progress

Greece's government announced that the Athens Stock Exchange will reopen Monday, a big step toward normalcy as talks with international creditors shifted into high gear.
The exchange has been closed since June 29, when the government imposed capital controls to prevent a banking collapse.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos signed the order Friday that also includes restrictions for Greece-based traders for an unspecified time period. A 60 euro limit on cash machines withdrawal will remain in place.
Tsakalotos met with lead negotiators from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to start negotiations for a third bailout worth 85 billion euros (USD 93 billion), following several days of preparatory meetings between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations.

The third bailout will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pledged to back the new cutbacks, while openly admitting that he disagrees with them.
"We will implement them, yes, because we are forced to," he said in parliament Friday. "But at the same time we will struggle to change them, to improve them and to counter their negative consequences."
The bailout talks with the IMF, European Commission, European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism must be concluded before Aug. 20. That's when a debt repayment to the ECB worth more than 3 billion euros is due - money which Greece does not have.