I am encouraged by recent comments that there are very viable projects commercial banks are now viewing. Given the high level of liquidity in the banking system and to smoothen the sharp decline in interest rates, the Tap facility was closed in May 2004 and the maturing volumes were shifted to the weekly auction.
The sustained fiscal profligacy in Greece was not timely reflected in official fiscal data (the estimate for 2009 deficit, which in April of the same year was 5.1 per cent, was progressively revised upwards to 15 per cent). This case exemplifies problems of the statistical monitoring framework.