'Greece will need third bailout'

And For Today's Most Shocking Headline We Have...

Zero Hedge,

12 September, 2012

Fresh out of the flashing red headline-a-tron:

IMF OFFICIALS SAY GREECE WILL NEED A THIRD BAILOUT

IMF SAYS GREECE CAN'T FILL FUNDING GAP ON ITS OWN, UP TO EUROZONE AND ECB TO FIND MONEY FOR GREECE

GREECE MET ONLY 22% OF PROGRAM TARGETS FOR 2011

EURO EXIT WOULD SET GREECE BACK BY MANY DECADES

Nobody, NOBODY, could have anticipated that fighting record debt with recorder debt, could possibly fail. And cue Germany telling Greece the party is now over, which, is what (a sliding EURUSD for those confused) it has wanted all along.

So much for the stabeeleetee.

From Dow Jones:

Greece will need a third bailout package from the euro zone, and the country's European creditors will have to find the money for it, according to a senior International Monetary Fund official.

"Greece will require additional financing, which may take the form either of official-sector involvement or of additional loans, hopefully on more favorable terms," Thanos Catsambas, an IMF alternate executive director, who represents Greece at the Fund's board, said in an interview.

Mr. Catsambas is an IMF veteran with experience of Fund programs in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In his current position, he has knowledge of the continuing negotiations between Greece and its troika of creditors—the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank.

Troika representatives are currently in Athens to assess Greece's situation and the possible disbursement of a €31 billion ($39.99 billion) loan, part of a second bailout package that totaled €173 billion. The payment is imperative for the Greek government to avoid running out of cash, but officials now suggest they don't expect a final decision on how to proceed with Greece until November.

The coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is facing growing public anger as it is tries to revive delayed structural reforms and implement fresh cutbacks of around €11.5 billion over the next two years.

The creditors are unanimous that this is Athens' last chance if the financing is to continue. Without the loan payment, the government would run out of cash in a matter of weeks and would have to find new ways of meeting its current obligations, such as pensions and public-sector wages. In an extreme scenario, this may require leaving the euro zone and printing a new currency.

Mr. Catsambas called this last option "an undesirable eventuality that will set the country back many decades."

...

Mr. Catsambas insisted that it should be the euro zone and ECB that take the strain of filling the rest of the gap.

"Extension of repayment of the IMF [part of] loans is impossible as all terms and conditions of IMF loans to all countries are based on rules that are not negotiable," he said. The failure of Greece to implement its agreements, and the lack of a sustainable debt trajectory, make it impossible for the IMF, under its own charter, to lend any more.

Mr. Catsambas said that the previous coalition government under Lucas Papademos, who took over from George Papandreou in November last year, estimated that "only 22% of the commitments under the troika-supported program were implemented" in 2011. Mr. Catsambas noted that the public sector still needs to be shrunk as a result.

Goodbye 8 day Greek work week. Here comes the 9 day work week.

Then came the official denial – must be true then!

Greece denies report it will need third bailout

Yahoo,

14 September, 2012

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's Finance Minister on Thursday denied a report citing the country's representative to the IMF as saying Athens would need a third bailout package.

"The country's positions are formulated by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister," Yannis Stournaras told Reuters