European partners reiterated at every turn last week that guaranteeing the credibility of data provided by Greece’s statistical service (EL.STAT) to its European counterpart, Eurostat, is imperative.
On Friday, it was Eurogroup chair Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s turn to enter the fray.
Speaking publicly after no less than three EU Commissioners sent a letter on the subject to the Greek government in defense of EL.STAT’s figures, Dijsselbloem underlined that the court case in Greece is a “huge mistake”. Nevertheless, he added the issue will not derail the Greek program (third bailout).
Repeated statements by European officials came even in the wake of a high-profile comment by the Greek alternate finance minister, Giorgos Houliarakis, who said the leftist Greek government is not disputing EL.STAT’s figures for the 2010-2015 period. Houliarakis was quick to step in and try to diffuse any possible crisis over renewed prosecution of EL.STAT head during the specific period, and on charges of essentially inflating the Greek budget deficit for 2009.
Anti-memorandum politicians in the country, including many quarters of the current ruling party when it was in the opposition, claimed that the specific budget deficit, exceeding 36 billion euros, was intentionally inflation in order to justify subsequent bailouts and austerity-linked agreements for the bailouts, i.e. memorandums signed by Athens with its institutional creditors.
