The Greek parliament will vote tonight on legislation which is crucial to the resumption of talks with the Eurozone on a third bailout.
Seven individual pieces of legislation must be passed - including plans for tax hikes and pension reforms - while there'll also be a vote on the package as a whole.
An IMF report says that Greece needs much deeper debt relief than what was pledged during the confrontational discussions in Brussels at the weekend according to a document which was acquired by Reuters yesterday.
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Irish business sentiment slipped during the second quarter - growth eased as issues like the Greece debt crisis, a slowdown in China and the possibility of Conservative victory in the UK's general election paving the way for a British exit from the EU caused uncertainty.
According to the KBC Bank Ireland / Chartered Accountants Ireland business sentiment fell to 123.1 - down from an eight-year high of 127.7 during the first quarter of 2015.
Interestingly these concerns have not affected the job market - Irish firms recruited at the highest rate since this index began nine years ago.
42 percent of companies reported that they have been hiring new staff - just nine percent reported that they had reduced staff numbers.
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China has reported on-target GDP growth of 7 percent for the second quarter of 2015 - although it is wildly suspected that these official numbers overstate economic growth.
China's stock market fell again over night as these figures were published - the positive data is seen to have diminished the chances of the government announcing further stimulus packages.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell by 4.6 percent - cancelling out gains from a three-day rally.
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Gatwick Airport is in the news on two fronts this morning. IAG has agreed to relinquish up to five pairs of slots at the airport as part of the EU Commission’s requirements to approve its bid for Aer Lingus.
The slots have to be used by airlines operating routes to Ireland and they are expected to be taken up by Ryanair and perhaps EasyJet, which already runs services from the London area to Belfast.
Observers do not expect EasyJet to compete with Ryanair on routes from Gatwick to Dublin
Meanwhile battle has been joined by the Chairman of Gatwick in terms of the recent decision by the Davies Commission in the UK to recommend a third runway at Heathrow rather than a second at Gatwick.
In a blistering attack on the decision, Sir Roy McNulty points out that Gatwick will hit 40m passengers this year rather than in 2024 as the Commission cites.
He also says the Report gives too little weight to the number of new local residents in the West London area that will be affected by noise as a result of Heathrow’s expansion and that the Report overlooked the fact that Heathrow currently breaches EU limits on air pollution.
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Markets
ISEQ is up 48 points to 6,429
FTSE is up 16 to 6,754
One euro gets you 1 US dollar and 10 cents and 70 pence sterling.
