A group of internationally renowned economists are aligning themselves with Beppe Grillo's anti euro movement; the coordinator of the group is Mauro Gallegati; Pier Luigi Bersani has set another ultimatum to Grillo, calling on him to support a minority government, or face new elections; Grillo says No, but says he is open to a technical government, but without involvement of the traditional parties; Italian retail sales fell 10% on 2012 and 35% on 2011, according to Confcommercio; German newspapers report that the Bundesbank wants the ECB out of the troika because its put the ECB under political pressure; Suddeutsche says this is very unlikely to happen; the Bundesbank says the new governing board structures of the single supervisory mechanism are so convoluted that they are ineffective; Spanish police believes that Barcenas kept 80% of kickbacks he obtained in the PP's name; after a recent disastrous press conference, the PP has a completely new idea: not to say anything anymore about the affair; Spain's chief prosecutor is seeking to remove the chief prosecutor of Catalonia; Spain's bank restructuring fund FROB has failed to auction off Catalunya Caixa; the eurogroup agreed a loan extension for Ireland and Portugal; but Germany and the Netherland remain inflexible on the question of direct bank recapitalisation; tax shortfalls, unemployment and pending court decisions threaten to derail the Portuguese budget target; the troika and Greece are running into a wall over the agreement to reduce the number of public sector workers by 25,000; Cyprus has agreed to an external bank audit; German car sales plunge 10% yoy; a consensus is emerging in the coalition in support of a widening of minimum wages; Latvia, meanwhile, has applied to become the 18th member state of the eurozone.