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The financial mechanism for the salvation of Greece will be €120 billion, which is three times the amount initially announced. Information was provided by members of Germany’s opposition party after meeting with leader of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Strauss-Kahn declined to confirm or deny that amount, but stated: “When we get to a final deal with the Greek authorities and announce the three-year program offered by us, we will announce the measures, which Greece needs to undertake and the final value of the loan. While the IMF is in talks with the Greek government we cannot confirm any information on the size and details of the loan conditions." 

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel answered in the same spirit when asked about the amount of the aid Germany would grant to participate in the rescue mechanism. "Let us not talk about numbers, now we building a three-year program and when it is ready we will be able to talk about certain values," said the Chancellor. If indeed the financial assistance for Greece will be €120 billion, two thirds of this amount will have to come from countries in the eurozone and the share of Germany is estimated to be around €16 billion.

Earlier during the day the spread-index of the 10-year Greek government bonds surpassed the critical 1025 basis points. In other words, if today Greece had to be credited from international financial markets the interest rate would have been around 13 percent - a percentage known to go with credit cards and not with crediting countries. With financial support mechanism for the Greek economy or not the country is flying headlong down after the last evaluation of Standard & Poor's, which sent the Mediterranean country in the category of junk or inappropriate for investments. By the end of the day the spread-index fell again to 755 basis points, which does not mean low interest rate but it seems pink and shiny compared to the 1000 basis points.

Greek economic analysts were quick to recommend to the Greek people to close their eyes to unrealistic assessments of foreign speculators, and Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou categorically stated that bankruptcy of the country is out of the question. A Eurobank spokesman reassures investment owners, that there will be no problem with liquidity of Greek banks and the ECB will continue to buy Greek government bonds from local banks despite the fall in profitability of Greek banks and the state itself. The Euro fell on world markets and U.S. dollar reached levels around $1.31 to the united European currency. 

Around noon the Athens Stock Exchange officially banned short selling transactions for two months until June 28, 2010 until markets calm down. Short selling is the practice of selling securities, which are not owned by the broker, but are borrowed from others.

Meanwhile Germany is holding an official visit and the Head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn and President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet arrived in the country. The purpose of the visit is to meet with representatives of the German Parliament to discuss the issue of providing financial assistance to Greece. Strauss-Kahn and Mr. Trichet will meet also with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is expect to formally bind with the promise that Germany will participate in the rescue mechanism. In an earlier statement the head of the IMF stressed that alongside the benefits of financial assistance granted," Greeks have to drink the bitter medicine of economic reforms," in order to heal their local economy.