In early 2010, Greece’s increasing financing problems marked the beginning of a previously “unthinkable” development, a sovereign debt crisis of a euro area country. Financial market players started to reconsider the “habit” of demanding undifferentiated risk premiums for the sovereign bonds issued by different euro area countries.
More emphasis was placed on infrastructural development and social upliftment than in the previous years. The government, however, continued to apply fiscal discipline and despite a decline in the growth of tax revenue, was able to contain the main budget deficit to an estimated 2,4 per cent of gross domestic product in fiscal 2003/04.