There's good news for the eurozone this week after finance ministers finally agreed a second bailout for Greece equalling £110bn, which will help the country avoid bankruptcy next month when maturing loans are to be repaid.

However, Greece has stern measures it must meet in return if it is to reduce its debts to 120.5% of its GDP by 2020. After five years of recession, Greece's debt currently amounts to more than 160% of its GDP. Greece must amend its constitution to give priority to debt repayments over the funding of government services and must also have a special account that will always hold enough money to service its debts for three months.

The agreed deal also means that private holders of Greek debt will be taking losses of over 50% on the value of their bonds, and the final loss to investors is thought to be as much as 70%.

The Prime Minister also opened the bidding for the new Employer Ownership pilot, inviting employers in England to apply to access up to £250m of public investment and secure more control over how skills training is designed and delivered. Detailed guidance and application forms for the pilot will be issued towards the end of February. Bidding will close on 26 April 2012.

Business Minister Mark Prisk announced a new working group of business representatives would examine issues behind late payment, while the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) published a new guide, Get Paid!, on prompt payment. It contains valuable lessons from small businesses such as advice on invoicing and developing a well-defined credit policy.

Prompt payment is vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with many firms not able to survive the cashflow problems that late payments create. Advice and guidance for small businesses to help them make sure they are paid on time and can seek redress if they are not is part of the Finance Fitness campaign, which sees government and businesses working together to help SMEs.

Fourth quarter economic figures show that two more of the eurozone's biggest economies, Italy and the Netherlands,  have now also fallen into recession, while Germany had its first negative quarter since 2009 with a decline of 0.2%. France, however, had a surprise growth of 0.2%. It isn't thought that Germany will fall into recession with figures showing that during 2011 as a whole the German economy grew by 3%.

Italy and the Netherlands join Greece, Portugal and Belgium in recession. Problems continue in Greece with the country's public order minister, Christos Papoutsis, saying that the Greeks have aready been pushed to their limits by the austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF. Eurozone officials have cancelled a planned meeting with Greek officials after making demands for additional cuts and reassurances. Although the Greek parliament approving an austerity package at the weekend, despite violent protests sweeping the country, the eurozone ministers have demanded a further 325m euros of cuts.