Greece is to escape expulsion from the euro, even though it was revealed on Monday that Athens gave false deficit figures to enable it to join the single currency.

A European Union investigation has found that Greece broke the eurozone's critical deficit ceiling every year since 1998, contrary to its claim that it stuck to the rules. The European Commission said on Monday there was no legal basis to throw Greece out of the single currency, which it joined in 2001 on the back of the grossly misleading deficit data.