The outbreak of the Greek sovereign debt crisis took the markets by surprise. It should not have done so. Greece joined the euro area in 2001. From that year until 2009, large and growing fiscal and external imbalances should have sounded loud warning alarms in the financial markets.
During those years:   Fiscal deficits consistently topped 5 per cent of GDP, peaking at 15.6 per cent at the end of the period.   The government debt to GDP ratio rose from about 100 per cent at the beginning of the period to 130 per cent at the end of the period.