Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Greece was branded with the world’s lowest credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, which said the nation is “increasingly likely” to face a debt restructuring and the first sovereign default in the euro area’s history. 
  
 The move to CCC from B reflects “our view that there is a significantly higher likelihood of one or more defaults,” S&P said in a statement yesterday. “Risks for the implementation of Greece’s EU/IMF borrowing program are rising, given Greece’s increased financing needs and ongoing internal political disagreements surrounding the policy conditions required.” 
  
 Greece’s government, which plans to sell 1.25 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of 26-week Treasury bills today, said that the downgrade overlooked “intense” talks between European officials to address the nation’s financing needs. Credit- default swaps on Greece, Ireland and Portugal surged to records yesterday on concern governments’ struggles to resolve the turmoil will threaten their ability to pay their debts. 
  
 “Greece will default -- it’s a question of when, rather than if,” Vincent Truglia, Managing Director at New York-based Granite Springs Asset Management LLP and a former head of the sovereign risk unit at Moody’s, said in an interview. “It’s a basic solvency issue rather than a liquidity issue. Only a debt writedown will do.” 
  
 Swaps on Greece jumped 47 basis points to an all-time high of 1,610 as of 5:30 p.m. yesterday in London after the S&P downgrade, according to CMA. Contracts on Ireland soared 27 basis points to 740, Portugal climbed 22 to 764 and the Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of swaps on 15 governments jumped 7 basis points to 218, approaching the record 221.75 set Jan. 10. 
  
 Greek Bonds 
  
 The yield difference, or spread, between 10-year German bunds and Greek securities of a similar maturity was at 1,402 basis points yesterday, close to a record. 
  
 No other sovereign nation is graded as low as CCC by S&P, a spokesman said by e-mail. Moody’s cut its rating on Greece to Caa1 on June 1, leaving only Ecuador as a worse sovereign risk. 
  
 “The ratings agencies are now playing catch-up with the market,” said Gianluca Salford, a fixed-income strategist at JP Morgan in London. “The market is pricing in a very high probability that there will be a credit event around Greece. The agencies are just catching up to the negativity that’s already priced in by the market, not the other way around.” 
  
 The downgrade comes as the European Central Bank and Germany battle over how to bail out Greece again and whether officials should push creditors to share some of the costs. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday that his advice to European governments is to “avoid what would be a compulsory concept” and “avoid whatever would trigger” a default. 
  
 ECB’s Hope 
  
 “The ECB wants governments to come to the aid of Greece and at the moment that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said Orlando Green, a fixed income strategist at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in London. “We do think there’s a chance Greece will see some sort of adjustment of its debt profile. That’s what the politicians are looking to do, effectively adjust their debt situation without wrecking havoc, which could easily have a contagion effect.” 
  
 S&P said it has a negative outlook on Greece’s debt. 
  
 “Our negative outlook indicates that a downgrade to ‘SD’ could occur if Greece undertakes one or more debt restructurings or maturity extensions on terms that constitute distressed debt exchanges as defined by our criteria,” S&P said. SD is a “selective default.” A restructuring would likely “result in one or more defaults under our criteria,” it said. 
  
 Recovery Rating 
  
 S&P said that its recovery rating on Greece’s debt is ‘4,’ indicating it estimates bondholders would recover 30 percent to 50 percent of their investment. 
  
 A “financing gap has emerged in part because Greece’s access to market financing in 2012 and possibly beyond, as envisaged in the current official EU/IMF program, is unlikely to materialize,” the report said. 
  
 Greece’s finance ministry said in a statement that S&P’s decision “ignores” the “intense consultations” to resolve the nation’s crisis taking place between officials at the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. 
  
 “The decision by Standard and Poor’s also neglects the determined efforts of the Greek government to avoid at any costs any possible violation of Greece’s contractual obligations, and the strong desire of the Greek people to plan for their future within the euro zone,” the statement said. 
  
 Granite Springs’s Truglia said that European officials should prepare for the fallout from a Greek default. 
  
 “What Europe’s governments should do now is look at the knock-on effects that will have for other markets and pressure that will exert on banking system,” he said. “But the problem is that governments always leave it too late.” 
  
 To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Ryan at jryan13@bloomberg.net; Gabi Thesing in Frankfurt at gthesing@bloomberg.net 
  
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net ||||| Protesters raise their hands in front of the parliament during a rally against austerity economic measures and corruption in Athens' Constitution (Syntagma) square June 13, 2011. 
  
 A Greek flag flutters behind a statue of ancient philosopher Socrates at the the Academy of Athens July 23, 2010. 
  
 ATHENS/NEW YORK Greece became the lowest-rated country in the world according to Standard & Poor's, which downgraded it on Monday and warned that any attempt to restructure the country's debt would be considered a default. 
  
 Greece now has a lower credit rating than countries such as Pakistan and Ecuador, which has been shut out of international markets since a 2009 default. The cost of insuring Greek debt is now almost twice as much as the price of insuring Pakistani bonds. 
  
 S&P's move was the latest blow for Greece's Socialist government, which is scrambling to push an unpopular austerity package through parliament to ensure continued funding under a year-old bailout plan. 
  
 Barely a year after Athens was granted a first 110-billion-euro (158-billion-dollar) aid package, the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank are working on a second funding deal. Some European countries such as Germany oppose giving more money to Greece without the assistance of private creditors. 
  
 S&P said European policymakers looked increasingly likely to impose a restructuring of Greece's debt -- either via a bond swap or by extending bond maturities -- as a means of making the private holders of Greek bonds share the burden. 
  
 "In our view, any such transactions would likely be on terms less favorable than the debt being refinanced, which we, in turn, would view as a de facto default according to Standard & Poor's published criteria," the agency said. 
  
 In such a case, S&P said, Greece's credit rating would be lowered to "selective default," or SD, while the ratings on the country's debt instruments would be cut to D. 
  
 It cut Greece's long-term sovereign credit rating to CCC, four steps away from default, from B. The short-term rating was affirmed at C and all ratings were removed from credit watch. 
  
 The move takes S&P's rating of Greece one notch below Moody's Caa1, while Fitch ranks Greece at B-plus. This makes Greece the lowest country in S&P's rankings. 
  
 S&P said the outlook on the long-term rating remained negative, a sign that another downgrade is likely in the next 12 to 18 months. 
  
 S&P said it will probably downgrade the ratings of four Greek banks as well -- National Bank of Greece, EFG Eurobank Ergasias, Alpha Bank, and Piraeus Bank. All of them are currently rated B. 
  
 GREECE'S WILL TO STAY IN EURO 
  
 Greece said the move by Standard & Poor's overlooked its commitment to carry on with tough fiscal efforts to repair public finances and remain a member of the 17-member euro currency club. 
  
 "The decision also overlooks the government's moves to avoid any problems relating to Greece's contractual obligations, as well as the will of all Greeks to plan our future inside the euro zone," the Finance Ministry said in a statement. 
  
 Several international banks have come out publicly in favor of rolling over their holdings of Greek debt, including France's Credit Agricole, which owns Greek bank Emporiki. 
  
 Germany's banking association said on Saturday it backed the idea of private creditors participating in the rescue. 
  
 The banks' participation would be part of a second bailout for Greece worth around 120 billion euros aimed at giving Athens more time to tackle its 340-billion-euro debt load, under the assumption that it will not be able to borrow on international markets this year or next. 
  
 Concerns that a second rescue may trigger a credit event drove the cost of insuring Greek government debt against default to a record high of 1,600 basis points on Monday. 
  
 Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek government debt rose 58 bps on the day to 1,600 bps, according to data monitor Markit, meaning it cost 1.6 million euros to protect 10 million euros of exposure to Greek bonds. 
  
 By comparison, Pakistan's five-year CDS were trading around 880 bps. 
  
 The euro pared gains against the dollar and the U.S. stock market briefly turned negative after the downgrade. Brent crude oil also fell after the move increased investors' nervousness over the economy and oil demand. 
  
 There are differences between the leaders of European Union states and the ECB, which remains opposed to private sector involvement in any Greek debt restructuring, saying it may set off a chain reaction in financial markets that would undermine the credit-worthiness of other stressed euro zone sovereigns. 
  
 EU leaders will discuss a new deal at a June 23-24 summit. 
  
 Ben May, an economist at London-based Capital Economics, said he did not see the S&P downgrade as having a material impact on the timing of a new funding package. 
  
 "We believe some form of a second bailout package will be in place to avoid a disorderly default," he said. 
  
 After failing to meet fiscal targets under the first bailout deal the government, which is trailing the conservative opposition in opinion polls, has decided to raise taxes and slash spending more than planned this year to avoid default. 
  
 The prospect of more austerity and rising unemployment has fueled 20 days of protests in central Athens with a big general strike planned for Wednesday, challenging the government as its new package is headed for parliament for a vote. 
  
 (Editing by James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler) |||||
A:
Standard & Poor’s knocked Greece down a whopping three notches in its latest credit rating today, saying a default was "increasingly likely." Greece’s new rating—CCC—is the lowest of any country in the world, standing just four steps above default, Reuters reports. What’s worse, the agency said its outlook was negative, meaning that the rating is more likely than not to fall again in the next 12 to 18 months. S&P believes that European policymakers will likely impose a restructuring of Greek debt on terms unfriendly to bondholders. Moody’s has Greece rated just one step higher. “The ratings agencies are now playing catch up with the market,” one analyst tells Bloomberg. “The market is pricing in a very high probability that there will be a credit event around Greece. The agencies are just catching up to the negativity that’s already priced in by the market, not the other way around.”