VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Euro zone economic growth accelerated unexpectedly in the final quarter of 2014 as the bloc's largest member, Germany, expanded at more than twice the expected rate.

Greece will make every effort to reach an agreement with its euro zone partners at Monday's meeting of euro zone finance ministers on how to transition to a new support program, its government spokesman said on Friday.

Asian stock markets were subdued on Wednesday while major currencies barely budged as looming euro zone meetings to discuss the Greek debt crisis overshadowed a firmer finish on Wall Street.

Greece and its euro zone partners engaged in brinkmanship on Monday, with leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras insisting his country would not extend its reform-linked bailout and Germany saying it would get no more money without such a program.

If Greece is forced out of the euro zone, other countries will inevitably follow and the currency bloc will collapse, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday, in comments which drew a rebuke from Italy.

Greece's new leftist-led government, isolated in the euro zone and under pressure from the European Central Bank, said on Friday it wanted no more bailout money with strings attached from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Greek borrowing costs leapt and bank shares were hit hard on Thursday after the European Central Bank abruptly pulled the plug on its funding for the country's financial sector in what Athens labelled an act of coercion.

The euro zone may have negative inflation rates for some of the coming months due to a huge drop in oil prices, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said in Budapest on Monday.

The new Greek government's anti-bailout stance has sent shudders through much of Europe but Germany's euroskeptic AfD party can hardly believe its good fortune ahead of a regional election as a breakup of the euro zone suddenly appears possible.

European shares fell and borrowing costs for the euro zone's most indebted states rose on Monday as the leftist Syriza party looked set to take on Greece's international lenders after a crushing victory in early elections.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, an unabashed critic of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing (QE), told a German newspaper on Sunday he had doubts about the effectiveness of the ECB bond-buying plan.

The European Central Bank's bond buying program will give a decisive boost to Italy's stagnant economy, business lobby Confindustria said on Saturday, while the Bank of Italy said it would make it easier to pass reforms.

Greece's leftist Syria party held onto its opinion poll lead on Friday as it campaigns to form the first euro zone government committed to scrapping austerity outright after elections this weekend.

The European Central Bank is poised to announce a plan on Thursday to buy government bonds, resorting to its last big policy tool for breathing life into the flagging euro zone economy and fending off deflation.

After a head-spinning bout of volatility, next week will be dominated by one question: Will the European Central Bank take the ultimate policy leap or pull its punches?