The Greek public deficit will likely exceed the target agreed in return for a massive EU-IMF rescue package earlier this year, Prime Minister George Papandreou says.
The 2010 deficit will likely come in at 9.0 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, above the 8.1 per cent target, Papandreou said, adding that will reflect statistical factors and must not cloud the progress Greece has made.
The prime minister said the EU statistics agency Eurostart will likely put the 2009 Greek public deficit at more than 15 per cent, up from the previously given 13.6 per cent, when it announces the revised figures on Monday.
But failing to meet the 2010 target should not hide the fact that Greece has done its part, Papandreou said.
"By the end of the year, we will have reduced the deficit by at least 5.5 percentage points of GDP, hopefully more.
"Regardless of the revised figures ... this does not change the fact that we have fulfilled our promise -- an unprecedented 5.5 per cent adjustment of GDP in one single year," he said at a media conference in Athens.
Greece, struggling with a massive debt and deficit, came close to default in May and had to be bailed out with a 110 billion euro ($140.2 billion) package arranged by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
In exchange, the government took on board a series of draconian reforms aimed at restoring Greece's precarious public finances to EU norms.
Finance ministry figures on Wednesday showed that Athens was just falling short of the agreed 2010 targets.
For the 10 months to October, the public finances showed a deficit of 17.41 billion euros, down 30 per cent from the same period a year earlier but less than the 32 per cent target.
The 2010 target was for a 36.9 per cent reduction but the finance ministry said it expected a large increase in revenues for the last two months of the year to make up the gap.
In October, the government said the 2010 budget would reduce the deficit to 7.8 per cent, better than the initial target of 8.1 per cent but still above the 3.0 per cent EU limit.
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