Greece May Require Third Bailout

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told an Italian interviewer that the country may need a third bailout package from fellow Eurozone members, even though the country will do everything it can to avoid such a situation. Papademos is quoted by Reuters:

Greece will do everything possible to make a third adjustment program unnecessary. … Having said that, markets may not be accessible by Greece even if it has implemented fully all measures agreed on. It cannot be excluded that some financial support may be necessary, but we must try hard to avoid such an outcome.

This is not a complete surprise, of course, given that the austerity measures (budget cuts) forced on the country make it nearly impossible for Greece to increase its GDP enough to do more than pay its debts to Eurozone banks. The European Union, the IMF, and the European Central Bank all expect that Greece will very likely need another bailout sometime after 2014.