Italy's announcement of a tentative budget deficit goal of 2.4% of GDP over 2019-2021 could compound the country's existing debt sustainability challenges. This represents a significant risk to Italy's A-/Negative Outlook ratings.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won a resounding mandate to reject the package of austerity measures on the table in Greece's referendum yesterday. This is but the latest twist in a road that increasingly seems to be leading towards Greece's departure from the eurozone.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is embarking on quantitative easing (QE) at a time when tailwinds are already beginning to build behind the euro area economy. Threadneedle Investments' fixed income fund manager Martin Harvey asks if we can dare to dream of a brighter 2015.

According to William Davies, Head of global equities at Threadneedle Investments if Greece leaves the euro, contagion will be feared, the volatility of a currency under threat will resurface, and we revisit the throes of the euro crisis we endured a few years back. Not our central case but certainly a distinct possibility...

The evolution of public sector debt depends on a number of economic variables and how they interact. Within the Eurozone, German and French debt looks sustainable while Italy, Portugal and Ireland appear borderline.