In turn, the 12.7 per cent figure would undergo further upward revisions, bringing it up to 13.6 per cent of GDP. Second, in November 2009 Dubai World, the conglomerate owned by the government of the Gulf emirate, asked creditors for a six-month debt standstill. That news rattled financial markets around the world and led to a sharp increase in risk aversion.
BIS Review 87/2010  3  In light of the rapid and sharp worsening of the fiscal situation in Greece, financial markets and rating agencies turned their attention to the sustainability of Greece’s fiscal and external imbalances. The previously-held notion that membership in the euro area would provide an impenetrable barrier against risk was shaken.