Greece’s debacle worsens! Banks, stock exchange closed

ECB has also turned down its request seeking a national referendum on the bailout terms and extending the bailout program so that a vote could be held on July 5.

In a clear sign that Greece’s five-year struggle to hang in the shared euro currency may just be calling it quits, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Sunday that the nation's banks and stock market would be closed on Monday.

In order to prevent the country’s financial system from collapsing in panic, Greece government has imposed capital controls that will limit the amount of funds that citizens can transfer or withdraw from its financial institutions.  Reports point that according to few Greece officials the banks will remain stay shut until July 6 and that the daily withdrawals would be limited to 60 euros, or about $67.

However, in order to prevent the chaos, the Prime Minister assured that bank deposits of citizens were "absolutely guaranteed." Some reports say that so far, over 1 billion Euros have been withdrawn from the Greek banking system since Friday night.

This development comes right after European Central Bank (ECB) rejected to increase the levels of emergency credit, known as emergency liquidity assistance that it provides to Greek banks in order for the institutions to keep running.

Besides, ECB has also turned down its request seeking a national referendum on the bailout terms and extending the bailout program so that a vote could be held on July 5.

The nation and its creditors have for months now have been negotiating the extension of bailout program and release a 7.2 billion euro tranche of its funds that would allow the Greeks to pay off forthcoming debts.  However, Greece further failure to make payments by Tuesday would result in default, which could have potentially disastrous effects on its economy and put it on a path to exit the euro-zone.