Why Greece's debt odyssey is not over yet

A protester holding a Greek flag outside the parliament in Athens. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

After 17 hours of negotiations, Greece and its creditors on Monday salvaged a deal for a third bailout that lessens the chance of Athens going bankrupt and needing to exit the 19-nation euro zone currency bloc.

But it's far from a done deal.

Greece must now go through a laundry list of actions and commit with concrete steps to reforms before the new 86- billion-euro (S$128.6 billion) bailout can be sealed. Failure at any of these key stages could see the whole deal unravel.

Here's a timeline of the key dates - and hurdles - ahead:

Wednesday, July 15:

The first and biggest hurdle: The Greek parliament will have to approve both the bailout package and an initial set of reforms, including tax and pension measures, that the government must implement to receive emergency funding - or the deal collapses.

The measures are harsher than those rejected by Greek voters in last week's referendum.

Thursday/Friday, July 16/17:

Euro zone member states must also agree to the plan for Greece's 86 billion euro bailout. This will give creditors a formal mandate to launch bailout negotiations.

At least seven other European nations - Germany, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia and Finland - plan to hold parliamentary votes to seek approval for the bailout deal, with Berlin expected to vote on Friday.

The biggest tests are likely to come from Germany and Finland, two countries especially critical of Greece's handling of the crisis. Germany has contributed the most to Greece's loans.

Monday, July 20:

Two bond payments are due - totaling about 3.5 billion euros - that Greece owes the European Central Bank. Failure to make the bond payments could lead the ECB to withdraw the emergency funding that is the only thing keeping afloat Greece's troubled banks.

Athens must also submit plans for modernizing and reducing the costs of running the Greek government. It must also fully normalize relations with the creditor institutions, allowing them to return to Athens to conduct technical work and monitoring on the ground.

Wednesday, July 22:

A second set of reforms, including the setting up of a 50-billion-euro asset fund, will have to be legislated on by this date. Valuable Greek assets like ports will be transferred to the fund to be monetized through privatizations or other means.

By now also, the government must have started to overhaul the country's justice system, implementing new procedures that will accelerate the judicial process and ultimately reduce costs.

It must also adopt the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive - the "rulebook" used by all EU member states that outlines how countries must deal with failing banks.

August 2015:

uro zone leaders say Greece is likely to need an additional 5 billion euros in "urgent financing needs" by mid-August.

Autumn 2015:

Supervisors from the ECB will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Greek bailout programme after the summer, as it considers Greek bank funding.

October 2015:

Its creditors require Greece to have carried out its "ambitious" pension reforms by the end of this month."

March 2016:

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) involvement in Greece's financial aid is due to end, and the country will have to apply for further support from the fund after this date.

Source: CNBC, USA Today, Bloomberg News

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