Greece breached bailout rules with staff hirings: report

Here we go again. As we reported yesterday, Greece was due to present to the Troika "how to cut a massive 150,000 public sector jobs: a move which will result in an immediate surge in public unrest, and an exponential jump in strike activity.... Greece is locked in talks with international creditors in Athens about shrinking the government workforce by enough to keep bailout payments flowing.

Greece needs to avoid across-the-board budget cuts that disproportionately hurt pensioners and employees as it moves into the next phase of its bailout and tries to restore growth, the International Monetary Fund said. Three years after receiving its first international bailout, with a debt burden that is still too high, Greece needs in-depth changes to its economy to both meet its fiscal targets and attract investors, the IMF said.

According to the Greek website Kathimerini, Troika talks break down. A second meeting between troika officials in Athens and Greece's Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis broke down on Tuesday, after the two sides hit a deadlock for the second time in the same day.

Greece might need a third international rescue package worth 50 billion euros ($66 billion) in 2015, the German weekly magazine Spiegel said on Sunday.The troika of creditors -- the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund -- is said to have expressed strong doubt in a preliminary report that Greece would be able to return to the international money markets to borrow in 2015.By then Athens is likely to require 50 billion euros to repay international loans.

International creditors will likely wrap up their keenly awaited report on Greece's fiscal health on October 24 and approve the release of further aid, eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday."The troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union) will probably present the report on October 24," Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, told German television."I think the troika will make a positive decision."

Greece will receive a new loan from Europe and the International Monetary Fund in return for additional spending cuts and a faster rate of privatisations, a newspaper report said Tuesday.Top-selling Ta Nea daily said Athens had concluded a deal with its 'troika' of creditors -- the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank -- that includes "a new loan", according to sources in Brussels.Eleftherotypia daily said the new loan could be up to 60 billion euros ($86 billion) to enable Greece to meet its payments schedule from 2012 onwards.