He clearly doesn’t think much of it.

Revisions to previous quarters of -0.8%, and Q4 coming in at -0.8% instead of -0.4% forecast. 2009 GDP has now fallen -2.6%.

(a) at -2.6% Greece GDP didn’t ‘outperform’ by as much as they had previously suggested/expected.
(b) sharp revisions to previous quarters continue to undermine credibility in economic statistics for Greece
(c) it increase their debt/GDP ratio further!
(d) it fits well with a story i heard this week (think i posted above) that lots of Greek data is going to be revised worse in the coming weeks, and the German support package was hastily put together this week to get ahead of the bad-news cycle and avoid a complete collapse.

By the way it is interesting that the legal objections to a bailout are not being reported here (it was all over the German print media yesterday) - is there some wishful thinking going on??

@Oliver - don’t worry the Germans are not going to change their behaviour because a few smaller countries can’t manage their fiscal affairs.

Best laugh I’ve had all day.

Guess the Mr. Merkel jibe really hurt?

I retain my opinion that moral support is as much as Greece will receive. I’m think Ireland’s contribution should be to send a fleet of Sr. Assumptas to help the Greeks give up cigarettes and alcohol and rollerblading for lent…

Anyway, great news. Greece is saved. From the IT report above:
“the union’s leaders suggested it could include some form of loans to Greece to help it service its debt and avoid a damaging default.”
They’re going to borrow their way out of debt! I didn’t know that ICTU was at the meeting too…

Nicholas - Ou est Le Monde? Mon Dieu - c’est Levi-Strauss!

George - I’m only following in Daddy’s footsteps. Do I really have to go home?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0211/breaking6.htm

What could any one of them be saying? I hope the words ‘dirty postcards’ don’t come into it.

Yes - Zapatero was at the 1st meeting.

Speaking ahead of today’s summit, Irish European commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who has charge of the research and innovation portfolio, stressed that acting together to aid Greece was essential.

“We would be much worse off, all of us, if we were outside the European Union…It’s important to realise that together we can get out of this. No single European Member State on its own can get out of this crisis, we can only do so by co-operating together, and i think that’s the main focus of this summit meeting that Mr Van Rompuy has called today,” she said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0211/breaking6.htm

Doubth you see any cash on table - Political Solidarity within EiroZone and A.N. Other Guarantee more important ……… a positive enough holding exercise …….. and move to more centralisation of Euro and fiscal policy …… and Euro needs this. I’ll take Frankfurt and Berlin over Dublin and Cavan at the mo ……..

@ Joseph - “Buy Euro and oil!” I would start selling, aparently its a political deal!!

Note to self: unless of course there isn’t any actual money put on the table today because ‘the markets’ won’t like it if it’s just ‘political’ support.

Quelle surprise!

I was looking at their (Greece) unemployment figures earlier.

The rate increased to 10.6% - to around 530,000 - in November 2009 (from their NSS), the latest figures that are available from them. Makes Ireland look like a positive basket case but they will be moving soon enough I suspect.

Wonder what it will be in November 2010? Any odds on vying to tie with Spain at nearly 20%?

Shock therapy over the next few months and trebles all round I’m betting.

Is it true that the Spanish PM was also in that meeting? I’ve no video access today. Interesting if so.

Buy Euro and oil!

*MERKEL SAYS EU WILL GIVE STATEMENT ON GREECE
*MERKEL SAYS THERE ARE RULES FOR GREECE

Deal is done - Van Rompuy ……….Angela leads, Nicolas supports + Barroso, Trichet, and Juncker + Papandreau … they now explain it to others in 2nd meeting and we wait and see. & interesting to see if the small German Liberal party have brought in the IMF in some shape or form or not ……… hope not: internal is better all round. UK Solidarity index nosedives - Darling -’a Euro-zone problem’ ………

EuroIntelligence has a broad take on this afternoon’s positive news

http://www.eurointelligence.com/article.581+M5bcbf7180c4.0.html

Sorry, didn’t see your earlier post about legal advice as I take so long to write anything in my old age. That’s an interesting twist.

IMF involvement kind of ups the stakes for the average Greek - I wouldn’t want to be piling humiliation on top of austerity in any Club Med country - they’re not quite as ’stoic’ as the Irish.

The irony is that Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century B.C.

When passed through the Eurosh1t filter that seemed to come out as “I will see your two and raise you two (and try not to blink).”

Did I notice earlier that someone said the derivatives Death Star could be heard starting up?