The austerity component of the package, seen as being imposed by wealthier nations, is unpopular with Greece's population, sparking widespread riots, violent protests and clashes with police over recent months.
However, presidents with the the European Union have responded to the unexpected referendum announced by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, saying they trusted Greece "will honour the commitments undertaken in relation to the euro area and the international community," having earlier spoken to Mr Papandreou about the referendum.
Following the announcement, global markets saw mass selling of stocks with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq, FTSE 100 and Hang Seng all closing down within a range from 2.21% to 2.96%.
The European Stoxx 600 declined 3.5% and both the German Dax and French Cac closed 5% or more down. The Greek exchange lost 6.82% New Zealand and Australian markets began reacting yesterday, both going down on opening to be trading down by about 1% at 4pm yesterday.
The NZX 50 closed at 3308.89 and the ASX-200 was at 4184.6Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre said the New Zealand and Australian markets "fared relatively well", compared to larger index losses around the world, and while Asian bourses continued with some declines yesterday, late trading was showing some re-gathering against the earlier, bigger declines.
Blue chip Fletcher Building shares were one of the hardest hit yesterday, down 3% at $6.45, after it was revealed Australian building approvals for September were down 13.6% on the previous month.
Mr McIntyre said early-opening US futures markets in New York were trading "flat", while globally he expected "choppy trading" conditions because of ongoing market volatility.
The referendum will ask Greek voters to decide if they want to adopt the drastic spending cuts required for Greece to secure its next tranche of rescue loans.
"It's a huge shock to everyone," said Eric Lascelles, chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management in Toronto, Reuters reported.
"It could jeopardise the bail-out package, cause a disorderly Greek default and end up costing the euro zone and banks more money."
The euro zone's plan would lend Athens 130 billion ($NZ224.5 billion) and arrange a 50% write-down on its massive debt. Greece is due to receive an 8 billion aid tranche in mid-November from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU).
The EU reiterated yesterday that at the October 27 summit, the heads of state or govern-ment of the euro zone had agreed on establishing a new programme for Greece of 100 billion, funded by the EU and the IMF.
"We are convinced that this agreement is the best for Greece," the EU members said yesterday.
The EU also highlighted that an agreement was reached with the private sector to bring Greek debt on to a sustainable path, which provides for a discount of 50% of the debt held by private creditors, or a write-off of about 100 billion.
"The member states of the euro zone are willing to contribute to all the measures relating to the private sector to the tune of 30 billion," the EU statement said.
"This substantive reduction would alleviate the burden on the Greek budget and would therefore support growth and jobs policies." This write-off, with an ambitious reform programme, would be instrumental to reach a debt level of 120% by 2020.
