Credible statistics

Credible statistics By Angelos Stangos Eurostat’s confirmation of the Greek primary surplus was the result of a very important fact that has been somewhat neglected, because the European Union’s statistical service accepted all of the data submitted by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) and seconded its findings. Eurostat’s trust in ELSTAT’s figures shows that the country has come a long way from the time of the “Greek statistics” fiasco and the state has entered a phase of credibility. However underplayed this extremely significant development may be, it represents a huge step toward the country’s modernization and its convergence with the standards of its eurozone peers. It was not so long ago that Greece was the subject of international ridicule after it cooked its fiscal books in an effort to convince the eurozone and the international markets that its public finances were in a better state than they actually were. It was this practice that compelled Brussels to take a somewhat skeptical approach to any figures presented by Greece, whether regarding the country’s livestock or its healthcare spending. That was until the meltdown, because the Greek state and generally all state-owned, partially state-owned and private entities had made a habit of fiddling with the numbers in order to hoodwink others, but they ended up harming themselves as they started to believe their own cooked statistics. Just as a household or business budget cannot be managed properly unless the figures on which it is based are correct, so a state cannot function when it pretends to be organized and efficient while actually being anything but. We should be grateful for the fact that one of the most pressing demands made on Greece by its international creditors and by European authorities such as Eurostat was that it radically reform ELSTAT. Thanks to their pressure, the authority was taken out of the government’s control and given the kind of independence it needed to refuse any demands from incumbent powers to fiddle the figures. This change was absolutely necessary in a country that cannot even stand the truth of hard data.

ekathimerini.com , Friday April 25, 2014 (18:31)