George Papaconstantinou, the new Greek finance minister, has spent much of his few weeks in office being berated by the European Union over the size of Greece’s budget deficit and the unreliability of the country’s statistics. A bad outlook even when based on falsely optimistic numbers: no wonder other finance ministers and the European Commission are stepping up the pressure on Greece to repair its public finances.

The previous government predicted a deficit reaching 6 to 8 per cent of gross domestic product. If only. The Commission now forecasts that the deficit will reach 12.7 per cent this year and 12.2 per cent in 2010. Public debt is now expected to reach almost 113 per cent of GDP, from an already yawning 99.2 per cent at the end of last year.