Eurozone reaches agreement – markets initially positive

They talked throughout the night – 90 meetings later, will this deal be enough to rescue the Eurozone?

After 10 hours of discussions that ran throughout last night, Eurozone leaders have agreed a deal they hope will solve the terrifying debt crisis paralysing the region and many of the world’s markets.

Eurozone leaders have convinced private banks holding Greek debt to accept a 50 per cent loss on the face value of their bonds. The so-called haircut is expected to reduce Greek national debt to (still not entirely reassuring) 120 per cent of GDP.

Greece will further benefit from a 130bn Euro bail-out from the International Monetary Fund and European Union.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be beefed up to some 1tn Euros, up from its current 440 billion Euros.

Private banks had earlier been told to hold more capital, to protect against future government defaults, and to help balance the burden of bail-outs across governments and the private sector.

The banks will collectively have to raise an estimated 106 Euros, according to the BBC, by June 2012.

The agreements mean the summit has delivered on its promise.

Stock markets have initially greeted the news positively. As the deal was announced internationally, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Send climbed 1.7 per cent, and South Korea’s Kopsi increased 1.4 per cent.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.66 per cent on opening this morning.

• The experts’ views: read economists’ thoughts before the deal was announced