Beleaguered Greece was amongst the nations that were hit the hardest by the recent financial turmoil, but the Mediterranean nation is showing a gritty resolve to ride out the storm.

Recent tax-hikes and wage cuts might have prompted its citizens to riot but the EC, IMF and ECB have been somewhat less critical. Indeed, all three organizations have stated collectively that Greece's austerity measures have enjoyed a "strong start". A statement made by the EC, IMF and ECB claims that Greece is on course to qualify for an installment of emergency loans valuing 9 billion Euros (7.5 billion pounds), which is part of an overall rescue package totaling 110 billion Euros should Greece continue to meet its targets.

This positive start to Greece's recovery was attributed to "a vigorous implementation of the fiscal programme".

The early success was achieved in part by the central government spending below budget in order to compensate for excessive spending at a localised level, which is a strong indicator of the central government's commitment to achieving their goals. With regards to the over-spending by localised governments, the central government released a statement saying "Going forward, to address potential risks to fiscal targets, it is critical to tighten expenditure control and monitoring, in particular at sub-national levels." Progress on structural reforms, including reforms in pensions and the labour market in particular, have been labelled as "impressive" and were ahead of schedule. It was said that in order to be granted access to international capital markets again, Greece had to impress in regards to policy implementation and these latest reports would indicate that this is being achieved.

In 2014, the Greek central government is aiming to reduce the deficit of the gross domestic product to less than 3 percent, from its current level of 13.6 percent. At the start of 2013, it also hopes to reduce the debt-GDP ratio. The recent reports prompted Giada Giana, of Citigroup, to state "In our view today's report confirms that the fiscal targets, for 2010 at least, are definitely achievable."