Greece's debt crisis timeline

Here is a timeline of economic events in Greece in 2010.   

 

January 2010 - Greece unveils stability programme on Jan. 14, saying it will aim to cut its budget gap to 2.8% of GDP in 2012 from 12.7% in 2009.   

 

February 2010 - Prime minister George Papandreou says on Feb. 2 the government will extend a public sector wage freeze to those making below 2,000 euros a month.Greece must refinance 54 billion euros ($66.6 billion) in debt in 2010, with a crunch in second quarter as more than 20 billion euros becomes due and market yields for Greek debt soar. A one-day general strike on Feb. 24 against austerity measures cripples Greece's transport and public services.   

 

March 2010 - EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn asks Greece to take further measures to tackle budget crisis.

 

March 5 - New package of public sector pay cuts and tax increases is passed to save an extra 4.8 billion euros. VAT to rise 2 percentage points to 21%; public sector salary bonuses cut by 30%; tax on fuel, tobacco and alcohol rise; state-funded pensions frozen in 2010.

March 11 - Public and private sector workers strike.

 

March 15 - Euro zone finance ministers agree on mechanism that will allow them to help Greece, but reveal no details.

 

March 25 - European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet says bank will soften rules on collateral for ECB loans, easing risk of Greek institutions being cut off from funding. Euro zone leaders agree to create joint financial safety net, with IMF, to help Greece and to try to restore confidence in euro. Athens will receive coordinated bilateral loans from other countries that use euro, and money from the IMF, but only if all states agree and if it has exhausted borrowing options.

 

April 2010 - On April 11, euro zone finance ministers approve 30 billion euro emergency aid mechanism for Greece but say Athens has not yet asked to activate plan.

 

April 15 - Greek parliament passes law that seeks to tackle tax evasion and shift tax burden to higher earners

 

April 21 - Investors dump Greek assets on uncertainly whether rescue funds will come in time. The yield on the benchmark Greek 10-year government bond rises to 8.4 percent.   April 22 - Eurostat says Greece's 2009 budget deficit was 13.6% of GDP, 12.7 % as reported earlier.

 

April 23 - Prime minister George Papandreou asks for activation of an EUIMF aid package.

 

April 26 - Striking Greek dock workers and protesters block hundreds of tourists from returning to their ship.

 

April 27 - Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's credit rating to junk status.   

 

May 1 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany's private sector will contribute to Greek rescue package.

 

May 2 - Prime minister Papandreou says Greece has sealed deal with EU and IMF opening door to multi-billion euro bailout in exchange for extra budget cuts of 30 billion euros over three years, on top of measures already agreed. The aid package amounts to 110 billion euros over three years and represents first rescue of member of the 16-nation euro zone and by far the largest international bailout of any country.

 

May 4/5 - Public sector workers stage 48-hour nationwide strike. Up to 50,000 protest in Athens, and hundreds fight with police. Three people are killed when a bank is set on fire.

 

May 6 - Greek parliament approves latest austerity bill.Around 10,000 students, workers and pensioners converge on parliament, chanting ;Take to the streets! Say ''No'' to the measures that hurt the Greek people! 

 

May 9 - The IMF unanimously approves its part of the rescue loans, with 5.5 billion euros being provided immediately.

 

May 10 - Global policymakers install an emergency financial safety net worth about $1 trillion to bolster financial markets and prevent the Greek crisis from destroying the euro currency.    -- The massive package consists of 440 billion euros in guarantees from euro zone states, plus 60 billion euros in a European debt instrument. EU finance ministers say the International Monetary Fund will contribute 250 billion euros, taking the total to 750 billion euros, or around $1 trillion.

 

May 10 - Greek stocks rise by more than 7.5%.

 

May 17 - Greece's austerity drive to return to fiscal health will only work if it is combined with measures to stimulate growth and investment, Papandreou says.

 

May 18 - Greece receives a 14.5 billion euro ($18 billion) loan from the EU and can now repay its immediate debt, a development that helped to steady global investor's jitters. With 5.5 billion euros already delivered by the IMF, Greece has now received the first 20-billion euro tranche of the loans.

 

May 20 - Some 25,000 people march peacefully to parliament protesting against government austerity measures.

 

June 8 - Greece's consumer inflation jumps to a higher-than-expected 5.4% in May, its highest since August 1997.

 

June 11 - Papandreou vows Greece will not default on its loans. Its austerity measures are intended ;to exclude default and to exclude exit from the euro zone;

 

June 14 - Moody's cuts Greece's credit rating four notches to Ba1, or junk status, over risks to an EUIMF bailout package, highlighting persisting doubts in coming out of a debt crisis. Greece says Moody's cut is not justified.