Greece has acknowledged it would breach conditions for a new installment of a €110 billion bailout as the IMF and European Union began an audit of the country's austerity measures.
Greece's government faced a week of tough talks with its benefactors and although bolstered by sweeping successes in local elections on Sunday, the outlook is still overshadowed by gloom on the economic front.
The Eurostat statistics agency issued its final revision of Greece's accounts for the past four years, triggering a new forecast by Athens that its public deficit in 2010 would reach 9.4% of output, well above the 8.1% target.
Greek bond yields, a measure of investor confidence in the country's finances, rose today, with the rate on 10-year paper up to 11.280% from 11.184% on Friday.
Having flirted with insolvency until it was rescued by the International Monetary Fund and EU in May, Greece today sought to reassure its partners that despite the latest figures, it remained on course.
It said it had in effect reduced its public deficit by a greater percentage than pledged as part of the €110bn EU-IMF rescue.
