Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked European Commission President von der Leyen to allow greater fiscal flexibility to help households and firms cope with rising energy costs, a person familiar said. In the letter he proposed excluding temporary emergency measures taken by member states from fiscal calculations for a set period and suggested using unexpected VAT windfalls from higher prices to finance support for households and businesses.

Guangzhou housing and urban‑rural development bureau, Guangzhou planning and natural resources bureau and the Guangdong office of the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued implementation guidance to apply the Notice on improving commodity housing sales. For projects selling completed units or using pre‑sales, financing should meet reasonable project needs on market terms and disbursements must be matched to construction timelines. Banks are directed to increase development‑loan support for completed‑home projects and for safe, comfortable, green, smart "good housing" projects; lenders should set tranche timing and amounts by construction progress, disburse loans in batches, and channel proceeds via trustee accounts at the lead bank to project counterparties' accounts for use exclusively in construction.

Fed's Goolsbee said oil prices could fall relatively quickly, but the deeper problem is how to get refineries back online.