Nor were investors impressed by this week's promises by George Papandreou, the prime minister, to cut the deficit to under 3% by 2013.
He is committed to reducing the deficit and to continuing with reforms begun under current Prime Minister Mario Monti.
The plan, which bears the fingerprints of Jan Bielecki, a former prime minister, aims to cut the budget deficit from 5.6% of GDP today to just 1% of GDP by 2015, and to reduce public debt from 55% of GDP to 47%.
David Cameron pursued his efforts to pin the blame for the problems on the prime minister, accusing him of racking up the biggest budget deficit in the developed world.
The prime minister said it was vitally important the government maintained its "credibility for deficit reduction" so it could continue to borrow money at low rates of interest.
Conservative peer Lord Blackwell, who was a political adviser to former Prime Minister John Major, said that "the primary reason for our current deficit" was a growth in public spending from 40% of GDP to closer to 50% over the last decade.
As well as proposing a lot more old-style deficit spending on public works and the like, the soon-to-be Japanese prime minister campaigned on a pledge to raise the Bank of Japan's inflation target to from 1% to 2%, insisting there should be unlimited monetary stimulus until that target is reached.
Prime Minister Rajoy will note that they have especially pushed for a slower path of deficit reduction in Spain.
Dutch bond yields soared after the country's prime minister resigned amid the collapse of talks aimed at trimming Holland's budget deficit.
Gordon Bajnai, Hungary's caretaker prime minister, has won plaudits abroad for his careful fiscal management (the budget deficit is now 4% of GDP, down from 9% in 2006).
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Prime Minister David Cameron said "slashing taxes" would only make the UK's fiscal deficit worse.
But Prime Minister David Cameron said he would continue making "difficult decisions" to deal with the deficit.
Most of all, the prime minister tried to lay out how the compassionate conservatism he espoused in opposition relates to the deficit-cutting and often painful transformation of the welfare state that have characterised his term so far.
The prime minister will argue in a speech in the north west that his policies are working and that the deficit he inherited is being cut.
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