Greece rescue package delayed again

Tuesday brings news that the Greek bailout has been delayed yet again. Bloomberg reports:

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos postponed a meeting with heads of the political parties supporting his caretaker government a second time in as many days as the government and international creditors haggled over terms to secure a second aid package.

Papademos will meet with the leaders in Athens tomorrow, instead of tonight as previously scheduled, a spokeswoman for his office said. Instead, he will meet tonight with the so- called troika, comprising the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to put the final touches to terms required for a 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) rescue package, the spokeswoman said.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany reported a surprisingly sharp 2.9 percent fall in industrial production in December. It was the biggest drop in production since January 2009.

There was better news in Japan though. The index of coincident economic indicators for Japan rose 2.9 points in December while the index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 point.