The European Central Bank's chief economist has said Greece, which is struggling with a massive budget deficit, cannot expect the EU to 'save' it.
'Greece's problems are decidedly Greek, as Prime Minister George Papandreou has himself admitted,' Juergen Stark told the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
He added that financial markets were 'fooling themselves' if they thought that at some point the other EU member states would put their hands in their pockets to save Greece.
Mr Stark spoke as officials from the ECB and from the European Commission began a mission in Athens to examine with Greek officials a crisis programme to stabilise Greek public finances. The Greek government is to submit the programme to the EU Commission by the end of January.
Greece's deficit, the difference between spending and revenues, is estimated to be 12.7% of gross domestic product, or economic output.
A finance ministry source said yesterday that Greece had reduced by a year its timetable for reducing its public deficit to the maximum 3% of GDP ceiling permitted under the Stability and Growth. This would now be achieved within three years.
Late last month Greece was hit by a financial crisis that has fuelled debate in financial circles about the cohesion of the euro zone.
Credit rating agencies downgraded their ratings of Greek debt, the price of government debt bonds used to finance the debt fell and the interest demanded by lenders rose sharply.
In addition, the ECB, which manages euro zone monetary policy, and the European Commission put intense pressure on Greece to produce a revised budget to correct public finances and restore national credibility on financial markets.
