The result, when Mr Trichet today presents the outcome of the ECB governing council’s latest monthly meeting, is likely to be carefully calibrated to sound tough and pile the pressure on governments to take action themselves, but leave the ECB with escape routes – just in case. A widely expected increase in the ECB’s main interest rate, from 1.25 per cent to 1.5 per cent, is likely to be overshadowed as a result.

A crucial issue is what the ECB would do if, despite all its warnings, eurozone governments pushed Greece into a default. Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency, on Monday said that if plans for French and German banks to roll over Greek debt went ahead, it would probably declare a “selective default”. In such circumstances, ECB policymakers have warned, Greece’s banks would not be able to use their government’s bonds as collateral in its crucial liquidity-providing operations; currently they account for about €100bn in outstanding loans. The country’s banking system would collapse as a result.

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