When the eurozone announced its rescue package in May, a key number was the headline €750bn amount—a cool $1 trillion at the time. A big chunk of that was €440bn from the newly created European Financial Stability Facility, which has now won its coveted triple-A rating. But in the rating process, it has shrunk.

The €440bn represents guarantee capacity, not lending capacity. First, Greece has to be struck from the list of guarantors, reducing it immediately to €428bn of guarantees. Then, the remaining countries backing the facility have agreed to guarantee 120% of any debt issued by the EFSF, reducing the gross issuance possible to €356bn. This number then needs to be further reduced as any borrower won't provide guarantees.