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Greek crisis timeline

07 May 2010, 20:28 CET
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(PARIS) - Key dates in the crisis sparked by Greece's financial woes:

- DECEMBER 2009: The world's three main credit ratings agencies, Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's, downgrade Greece's debt.

- 24: The Greek parliament adopts a 2010 budget providing for a reduction of the public deficit from 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 to 9.1 percent in 2010. The budget foresees that Greece's debt will swell to 295 billion euros (373 billion dollars).

JANUARY 2010

- 14: The Socialist government of George Papandreou unveils an austerity programme.

- 26: Portugal confirms a record deficit of 9.3 percent.

- 29: Spain adopts a three-year austerity plan aimed at saving 50 billion euros.

FEBRUARY

- 3: The European Union's executive Commission approves Greece's austerity plan, placing the country under surveillance.

MARCH

- 8: Portugal in its turn unveils an austerity plan. Two weeks later, Fitch downgrades the country's long-term debt rating.

- 25: Ireland, which in 2009 adopted two austerity plans, says its gross domestic product plunging by a record 7.1 percent during that year.

The EU decides to involve the International Monetary Fund in a Greek rescue package.

APRIL

- 11: The eurozone maps out a plan to lend Greece 30 billion euros in 2010, at a rate of five percent.

- 22: The EU sharply increases Athens' 2009 public deficit estimate to 13.6 percent. Moody's cuts Greece's sovereign debt rating a notch from A2 to A3, sparking market panic.

- 23: Greece asks for up to 45 billion euros of urgent aid at low rates, promising new austerity measures.

- 27-28: Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's sovereign debt to junk status and cuts Portugal and Spain's credit ratings. European stock exchanges tumble.

MAY

- 2: Athens announces a drastic austerity programme. Eurozone finance ministers approve a 110-billion-euro loan package for Greece over three years, with 80 billion euros coming from the bloc and the rest from the IMF.

- 3: The European Central Bank suspends benchmark criteria for lending to Greek banks.

- 4: Spain and the IMF firmly dismiss speculation that Madrid is seeking a massive loan, as stock exchanges and the euro tumble.

In Greece strikes and demonstrations take place against the austerity plan.

- 5: Greece is nearly paralysed by a general strike, the third since February. During the protests, three people die in a firebomb attack on an Athens bank.

- 6: Panic on the markets as the euro reaches its lowest point since March 2009 at 1.25 dollars. The Dow index suffers a record one-day drop of almost 1,000 points before recouping over half those losses.

- 7: Eurozone leaders meet at a summit to stem the Greek crisis and stop the crisis from spreading.


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