Greece facing further bailout hurdles

Greece faces further hurdles and delays before it can receive a second, €130bn bailout despite voting through more austerity measures in the face of violent protests.

The European Union's Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn yesterday called the Greek parliament's approval of a further round of budget cuts a "crucial step forward", but Germany insisted it would still take some time before the second bailout was delivered.

Germany, which as Europe's biggest economy pays the largest part in bailout deals, said it would not give its final approval for the new aid payments until early March - after it becomes clear how many banks and investment funds are willing to take losses on their Greek bonds and the parliament in Berlin votes on the new measures.

Pushing the new bailout back for several weeks underlines the amount of distrust that has built up against Greece over the past two years, when many promised cuts and reforms were passed in its parliament but never actually implemented.

But it also means that Greece, its citizens, and the rest of the world economy will not know for several weeks whether the country can avoid a potentially disastrous default.

A bankruptcy could force Greece out of the euro, drag down other troubled eurozone countries and shake global markets further.

The uncertainty over European Union financial reforms and the region's weak economic outlook led rating agency Moody's Investor Service to downgrade its credit ratings on Italy, Portugal and Spain, while lowering the outlook for its ratings on France, Britain and Austria to "negative" from "stable".

Moody's also cut its ratings on the smaller nations of Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta.

"Germany is trying to get the best deal it can by putting pressure on Greece now," said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics in London. The idea is to "give Greece a bit more of an incentive over the next few weeks to speed things up and get things moving".

But delaying the final approval of the bailout is not without risk. Uncertainty over the new rescue money could dissuade some of Greece's private investors from participating in a separate bond swap deal, Mr May warned. A hitch in getting the bailout package through national parliaments in the eurozone could also push Greece perilously close to missing a €14.5bn bond redemption on March 20, he added.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stressed that Europe was doing everything to help Greece avoid bankruptcy, "but Greece itself of course must want that".

Greece's political leaders scrambled over the weekend to get new far-reaching austerity measures through parliament before a meeting of the finance ministers from the 17 euro countries tomorrow.

The drastic cuts debated on Sunday included axeing one in five civil service jobs over the next three years and slashing the minimum wage by more than a fifth.

As Greek MPs voted on the new cuts, the streets of Athens and other cities were rocked by violent protests. In Athens, at least 50 buildings were burned while dozens of stores and cafes were smashed and looted.

Police arrested at least 79 pople and detained a further 92, while in several cases they had to escort fire crews to burning buildings after protesters prevented access.