Greece joined euro through ‘deception’

Copenhagen: Greece was only able to join the euro through deception and the currency bloc’s leaders have been “too polite” ever since to deploy adequate sanctions that could have averted the region’s debt crisis, former European Central Bank chief economist Otmar Issing said.

“When I worked for the ECB I suffered every time countries didn’t meet the criteria,” Issing, 75, said in an interview.

“Greece cheated to get in, and it’s difficult to know how we should deal with cheaters.”

Issing, who joined the ECB a year before the euro’s inception in 1999 and stayed until 2006, warned that Greece will probably be unable to honour its debts as it grapples with insolvency.