The 2009 Greek fiscal figures

The prosecution of the ex-statistics chief Andreas Georgiou for allegedly "inflating" the 2009 Greek fiscal deficit has reopened the discussion on the true fiscal situation of the country in 2009. This discussion has haunted Greek politics since the beginning of the crisis. The anti-memorandum populism of the last six years was built on questioning the - officially certified by the Greek and European statistical agencies - figures for the exceptionally high fiscal deficit for 2009, the year before the country was forced to seek a bailout from the EU and the IMF.

The undersigned assumed in October 2009 respectively the functions of Finance Minister and Deputy Finance Minister with responsibility for the General Accounting Office (GAO). On October 9, two days after the swearing-in of the new government, we were informed by the then Governor of the Bank of Greece (BoG) that...

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