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After reviewing the data on the economic situation in Greece for the period 2006-2009, the European statistical office Eurostat announced that the budget deficit for the last year is not 13.8% but whole 15.1% of GDP. The external debt is 127% of GDP for 2009 instead of the 115.4% of GDP which were announced in this year spring for the same period. Both ratios had to be inevitably changed after adding the debts of state enterprises as well as the cost of swap-transactions to the total debts of Greece for the last year. The new data for 2009 could be the stone that will turn the 2011 budget round the primary aim of which is to reduce the deficit to 7% by early 2012.

The final value of the data will be officially confirmed on October 15 this year, when Eurostat will release the report results on the current state of the Greek economy. The Mediterranean country became known for its dubious statistics still the last year, when the expression “Greek statistics” has become a synonym for false data in Brussels. The Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission Olli Rehn gave Eurostat instructions to enhance its expert group to unravel the knot of the Greek statistics and to establish the actual levels of the macroeconomic indicators for the last year. According to the EC spokesman, statisticians from Brussels have expressed reservations for the data quality as early as April 2010. Since then, however, several inspection were carried out which led to the conclusion that the deficit and external debt values are higher than the initial levels.   

The re-estimated deficit is likely to blow the coals of the political disputes in the country between the government and the opposition. According to Financial Ministry officials, the new value of the deficit comes only to confirm the position of PASOK that the former government of New Democracy is responsible for the economic crisis in the country today. Whatever the reasons for the increase in the macroeconomic data, Greece has to meet its obligations to the EU countries and the IMF Memorandum of financial support to reduce its budget deficit to 3% of GDP by the end of 2012. The government spokesman George Pedalotis and the Minister of Finance George Papaconstantinou are adamant that despite the unfavorable development there will be no additional financial cuts the next year beyond those already scheduled in the draft budget for 2011. Economic experts in the country, however, fear that this promise can not be met.