In December 2009, the newly elected prime minister, George Papandreou, announced at an EU meeting that Greece’s budget deficit was far worse than even the most pessimistic forecasts had indicated .As it turns out, Greece had significantly understated its deficits in previous years as well. The cumulative effect of these deficits was a government debt/GDP ratio by the end of 2010 of 143%, the highest in the Eurozone. These high deficits and resulting enormous debt/GDP ratio called into question Greece’s ability to continue to service its debts. Greece’s debt rating was downgraded, triggering large-scale sales by many private investors and pushing up yields.