article: Another parliamentary vote - after a bad tempered debate - has ticked some more of the boxes required by the eurozone. So what next for Greece? First let's be clear - that third financial rescue package has still to be negotiated. So much political blood has been shed just to get the talks started, surely, you might think, Greece and the eurozone wouldn't let a deal slip from their grasp after all that. Perhaps. Though the next few weeks of negotiations will be hard. So let's assume the third programme will be agreed. The precise contents are still to be negotiated but it will include many policy commitments that the Greek government and much of the population will hate. There will be targets for the government's finances, specifically for a primary surplus - that means the government must take in more in tax revenue than it spends, putting to one side the interest it is paying on the national debt. Greece has managed primary surpluses for the last two years. But after a renewed decline in the economy starting at the end of last year - and severely aggravated by the bank closures this month - it will be very hard to repeat that this year. To achieve that aim will mean more austerity. There has been massive austerity already. The adjustment to the government finances has been extraordinary: there is a measure called the structural budget balance: that went from a deficit of 18.6% of GDP in 2009 to a surplus of 2.2% in 2013. (These figures take out the impact of the economic cycle on taxes and public spending and so show - imperfectly - the effort a government has put in to change its financial position.) The programme will be subject to continuous monitoring and it's sure to lead to further episodes of tension between Greece and the creditors, and in all probability more occasions when payments are delayed because of slippage in the implementation of the policies. We had a flavour of the political difficulties the government will face with implementation over the last 24 hours. A statement from a public sector union said: "We will continue our battle so that the new barbaric bailout does not pass and is overturned." Eurozone governments also expect Greece to make a commitment to a wide range of reforms covering, among other things, industrial action, collective bargaining, and opening closed professions. There's more potential there for political difficulties in implementation. Austerity will also aggravate the weakness of the economy, which is already back in recession. The usual measure of a government's debt burden is the ratio of the debt to GDP. More borrowing - from the eurozone for the foreseeable future - and weak growth or even continued contraction will mean that debt burden continues rising. So what Greece needs is a period of decent economic growth. Arithmetically that would help reduce the debt burden, by making it smaller in relation to the country's GDP. More practically it would help bring in more tax revenue that would make the debt more
summary: Bailout number three is, more or less, in the pipeline.