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21 June 2011
Timeline - Greece's debt crisis
(Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faces a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, a major hurdle for him to overcome in securing fresh international aid and averting the euro zone's first sovereign debt default.
Here is a timeline of economic events since Papandreou first sealed a bailout deal in May 2010:
May 2, 2010 - Papandreou says Greece has sealed a deal with EU and IMF, opening door to a bailout in return for extra budget cuts of 30 billion euros (26.6 billion pounds) over three years.
-- Three-year package amounts to 110 billion euros and represents first rescue of a euro zone member.
May 4/5 - Public sector workers stage 48-hour nationwide strike. Three people are killed when a bank is set on fire.
May 6 - Greek parliament approves latest austerity bill.
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 safety net worth about $1 trillion (615.9 billion pounds) to bolster international financial markets and prevent the Greek crisis from damaging the euro.
-- It consists of 440 billion euros in guarantees from euro zone states, plus 60 billion euros in European debt instruments. EU finance ministers say the IMF will contribute a further 250 billion euros.
May 18 - Greece receives a 14.5 billion euro loan from the EU and can now repay its immediate debt.
July 7 - Greek parliament passes pension reform, a key requirement of the EU/IMF deal, cutting benefits, curbing widespread early retirement and raising women's retirement age from 60 to match men at 65.
August 5 - EU and IMF inspectors give Greece the green light for a fresh 9 billion euro tranche from the bailout.
September - The IMF says Greece is ahead of schedule in economic reform and it will disburse an additional 2.57 billion euros under a standby loan.
October 4 - Greece submits a 2011 draft budget to parliament pledging to cut the 2011 budget deficit faster than agreed in the IMF/EU bailout deal.
January 2011 - Fitch becomes the third ratings agency to cut Greek debt to "junk" status after S&P and Moody's.
February 11 - EU and IMF inspectors approve a fresh tranche of 15 billion euros of bailout funds.
May 11 - EU and IMF inspectors arrive in Athens to press Greece to shore up its finances and determine if the country will get a fifth aid tranche of 12 billion euros.
May 23 - Greece unveils a series of privatisations, part of a goal to raise 50 billion euros by 2015 to pay down its debt.
May 29 - Thousands of protesters denounce Greece's ruling class and vent their anger at the IMF and its demands for yet more belt-tightening.
June 1 - Moody's slashes Greece's credit rating by three notches to deep into junk territory.
June 3 - Greece may get a vital slice of aid in July to avoid default, international lenders say, as they end a month-long review of their 110 billion euro bailout programme.
June 8 - Greece agrees to 6.48 billion euros of extra austerity measures for 2011 and savings up to 2015 to cut deficits and keep getting aid, an official document shows.
June 9 - The Greek government approves and submits to parliament the mid-term fiscal and privatisation plan required by the EU and the IMF to restore the country's finances.
-- GDP tumbles 5.5 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2011, official data shows.
June 13 - Greece becomes the country with the lowest credit rating in the world after S&P downgrades it by three notches, to CCC, just four steps away from default, from B.
June 17 - Papandreou reshuffles his cabinet to muster support for painful economic reforms needed as the price of a second international bailout. Evangelos Venizelos becomes new finance minister. Vote of confidence scheduled for June 21.
June 19 - Euro zone finance ministers say Greece has to approve stricter austerity measures before a final decision is made on a further 12 billion euros in loans.
-- Papandreou asks Greeks to support the austerity steps and avoid a "catastrophic" default.
June 20 - Workers at Greek state utility PPC launch a 48-hour strike at midnight. They oppose government plans to sell the company. In Athens, anti-austerity demonstrators gather in the central square outside parliament.
