Greece stays afloat with short-term loans

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had said Greece would not be able to repay €5bn (£4bn) in bonds maturing on Friday.

The debt management agency sold €2.76bn (£2.2bn) of four-week bills at 3.95 per cent interest and €1.3bn (£1bn) of 13-week bonds at 4.2 per cent.

Greece has been relying on bailouts since 2010 due to incredibly high interest rates for long-term loans by international creditors with little faith in its ability to meet its obligations.

A summit of eurozone finance ministers failed to reach agreement on the next batch of funds on Monday night.

However, it did decide to give Greece a further two years to "reform its economy," slang for the crippling austerity package Greeks are being forced to endure.

Officials said the extension until 2016 may require an additional €30bn (£24bn) to fund.

Eurozone giant Germany has repeatedly said it won't agree to the release of the next €31.5bn (£25.2bn) in loans until Greece is in a position where its debt is at a sustainable level.

An agreement has been delayed until November 20.

Finance ministers turned their attention to Europe's beleaguered banking sector last night, a topic they were even less likely to agree on.

Officials discussed the promotion of greater fiscal union between eurozone states. Some want a single supervisor run by the European Central Bank to oversee the 6,000 lenders in the euro area.

Germany has made a single body central to its plan for the creation of a single European bailout fund.

The controversial issue of monitoring EU member states' budgets was also up for discussion as well as how far the EU would be allowed to go in "correcting" deficits.

Spanish Economy Minister Luis De Guindos today welcomed Monday's discussion of Spain's banking crisis.

He said the creation of a "bad bank" to take poor loans off other institutions books would encourage lending.