Greece has embarked on an ambitious adjustment programme with financial support from EU/IMF/ECB (Troika), and, as announced on 21 July 2011, with participation of Greece’s private creditors. Measures are needed to reverse the debt build-up, to restore competitiveness, reignite sustainable growth based on investment and exports, and to regain access to international capital markets. In 2009, the fiscal deficit had ballooned to over 15% of GDP reflecting uncontained spending, a collapse in tax revenues and the onset of a recession, while public debt reached 140% of GDP in 2010. In addition to fiscal imbalances, external imbalances also widened and total net foreign debt, both public and private, rose to 105% of GDP in 2010.The dire economic situation was magnified by lost credibility as serious deficiencies in statistical monitoring of government accounts were exposed.