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Despite the firm denials on the part of Athens, Germany’s Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble considers the possibility of imposing capital controls in Greece.

During a discussion with American Professor of Economics Kenneth Rogoff, the content of which is published in today’s issue of the German Die Zeit, Schaeuble left open that possibility, saying, "The decision to impose capital controls is the exclusive responsibility of each member state." In turn, Rogoff suggested that Greece would introduce the measure for a period of 5 or 10 years to improve its economy.

Thus, however, one Greek euro would be worth less than one euro in Western Europe and analysts believe that the measure is raising various comments precisely for that reason.

At the same time and regardless of whether there will be capital controls, Wolfgang Schaeuble has called on the Greek government to decide on the future of Greece in the euro zone.

"We said we would help you but you should put the economy back on its feet. This is the philosophy of the rescue programme. Greece's new government says, "We want to keep the euro but no longer want the programme." These two things cannot happen simultaneously," states the German Minister of Finance.

Senior banking sources however say that if the Greek government would be forced to impose capital controls it would mean that Greece’s international creditors would have shown Athens the exit from the euro zone.

Although their opinion is that the government is skating over thin ice and increasing the risk of an accident by not concluding an agreement with the creditors, they believe the actions taken by the European Central Bank to date suggest that it will wait for an agreement until the last moment.

The same sources confirm that the Ministry of Finance on the proposal of the Bank of Greece takes the decision to impose capital controls, having determined that there is a direct risk for the system to collapse without such measures.

To get to this point, however, the European Central Bank would have interrupted the funding to Greek banks from the Eurosystem to such an extent that the outflow of deposits might collapse them.

"If we go so far as to impose restrictions on cash withdrawals from ATMs, euro deposits in Greek banks and in any other bank in the rest of the euro zone member states would not be the same in value," a bank official told the newspaper To Vima.

He added that in such a situation, the Greek economy would sink into a deep recession, which might reach 10% within one year.

Under these conditions, thousands of Greek companies that import goods from abroad would face huge practical difficulties. "When imposing bureaucratic procedures on a simple payment to suppliers abroad in a market that relies on imports, such as the Greek one, the result would be disastrous, not only in terms of the reduced demand but also supply of goods," analysts state.

In their words, the size of the Greek economy does not provide options for easy experiments similar to those conducted in Cyprus two years ago. According to them, the fact that Greece was in a state of continuous recession in the course of six consecutive years (2008 - 2013) should not be underestimated. Another significant drop in the gross domestic product would create a socio-economic environment that would not be favourable for the return of the euro.

"The creditors know that the consequences of imposing capital controls are significant and that, since they want to keep the euro zone intact, they are the ones who will pay the price of such a choice, from the moment that Greece has no access to financial markets," emphasize the Greek banking sources.

Therefore, they believe that if things would weigh in this direction, it would be a way not to put pressure on the Greek government but to cause a split, which is why the European Central Bank has not yet taken the risk of proceeding to such actions, according to them.

So far, Frankfurt has secured through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance the liquidity required for the normal functioning of the Greek banking system, without changing the regime of the guarantees provided by the Greek state.

The same sources indicate that Mario Draghi is not changing the ceiling of the funding for Greece from the European Central Bank despite the strong pressure exerted on him by those who are more critical towards Athens, including the governor of the German central bank.

Analysts believe that this will happen the moment that he receives a sign from politicians that there is no chance to reach an agreement with the Greek government.