Timeline: The Greek debt crisis

After the €110bn bailout of Greece on Sunday, IFAonline brings you a timeline of the country's economic turmoil in 2010.

14 January - Greece unveils a stability programme saying it will aim to cut its budget gap to 2.8% of GDP in 2012 from 12.7% in 2009. Unions protesting against the austerity plan announce strikes for February.

2 February - Prime Minister George Papandreou says on February the Government will extend a public sector wage freeze to those making below €2,000 a month for 2010, excluding seniority pay hikes.

Jan/Feb - Greece must refinance €54bn in debt in 2010, with a crunch in second quarter as more than €20bn becomes due. A 5-year bond issue in January is five times oversubscribed but the Government has to pay a hefty premium.

3 February - The EU Commission says it backs Greece's plan to reduce its budget deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2012 and urges Greece to cut its overall wage bill.

24 February - A one-day general strike against the austerity measures cripples Greece's transport and public services.

25 February - An EU mission to Athens with IMF experts delivers a grim assessment of the nation's economy.

March - EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn asks Greece to announce further measures to tackle its budget crisis.

5 March - New package of public sector pay cuts and tax increases is passed by the Government to save an extra €4.8bn. The measures include raising VAT by 2 percentage points to 21%, cutting public sector salary bonuses by 30%, increases in tax on fuel, tobacco and alcohol, and freezing state-funded pensions in 2010.

11 March - Public and private sector workers strike.

15 March - eurozone finance ministers agree on a mechanism that will allow them to help Greece financially if needed, but reveal no details.

19 March - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urges EU member states to agree a standby aid package for Greece.

25 March - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet says the bank will extend softer rules on collateral for ECB loans, easing the risk of Greek institutions being cut off from funding at the end of 2010.

26 March - eurozone leaders agree to create a joint financial safety net, with the IMF, to help Greece and to try to restore confidence in the euro. Under the accord, Athens will receive coordinated bilateral loans from other countries that use the euro and money from the IMF, but only if all states agree to the bailout and if it has exhausted its borrowing options.

11 April - eurozone finance ministers approve a giant €30bn emergency aid mechanism for Greece but stress Athens has not yet asked for the plan to be activated.

13 April - ECB policymakers give the thumbs-up to the eurozone's rescue package as Greece passed a key test of its ability to raise fresh funds.

15 April - Parliament adopts a tax reform bill, backing Government moves to tackle tax evasion and shift the fiscal burden to higher-income earners.

21 April - Greece starts talks to hammer out details of a potential aid deal but investors dump Greek assets on a lack of clarity over whether the funds would come in time. Germany's opposition Social Democrats say they oppose "fast-track" approval for the deal in parliament. The yield on the Greek 10-year government bond rises to 8.4%.

22 April - Moody's downgrades Greece's sovereign rating by one notch to A3, placing it four notches above speculative, or "junk" status.

22 April - Greece posts a budget deficit of €32.34bn or 13.6% of GDP in 2009, not the 12.7% it had reported earlier, Eurostat says.

23 April - Prime Minister George Papandreou asks for the activation of an EU/IMF aid package aimed at pulling the eurozone member out of a debt crisis.

25 April - Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou says bailout talks with the IMF and European partners in Washington go well and he is confident Greece will secure help in May to finance its debt.

26 April - Striking dockers and protesters at Greece's largest ports.

27 April - S&P downgrades the credit rating of Greece to junk status.

28 April - Bank stocks jump as much as 6.2% after securities regulator says it has banned short-selling in Greek shares on the Athens bourse until June 28.

1 May - Thousands of angry Greek protesters march through Athens to protest against austerity measures they say only hurt the poor.

1 May - German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will welcome a contribution from Germany's private sector to support a Greek rescue package.

2 May - Prime Minister Papandreou says Greece has sealed a deal with the EU and IMF opening the door to a multi-billion euro bailout and extra budget cuts of €30bn over three years, on top of measures already agreed.

2 May - The aid package amounts to €110bn over three years and represents the first rescue of a member of the 16-nation eurozone and by far the largest bailout for a country to date. Merkel promises to work for German parliamentary approval for the bailout by Friday.

(Source: Reuters)