Speaking to reporters, after an ECOFIN meeting, the Greek minister said he presented in detail all legislative initiatives taken by the new government towards ensuring the independency of the National Statistical Service and committed that the quality of data compiled by the statistics service would be cross-checked by an independent authority, while he underlined that he asked Eurostat to contribute in the creation of the necessary inspection framework.
Papaconstantinou said a draft budget for 2010 envisaged a cut in the fiscal deficit by 3.3 pct, from 12.7 pct to 9.4 pct of GDP. Half of this reduction will result from structural measures, 60 pct higher state revenues and 40 pct lower state spending. He underlined the significance given by the new government in adopting credible economic policies and more particularly expressed his will to radically revise a model of drafting state budgets.
Papaconstantinou said he intended to ask for technical help by international credit rating firms.
Commenting on an ECOFIN statement focusing on new problems regarding Greek statistics, Papaconstantinou strongly criticized the previous government over false data submitted to Brussels and for management of public finances. He stressed that the government did not want the average Greek citizen to pay for the mistakes made by the previous government, while he stressed that Greece did not face any particular problem with its borrowing activity, although he expressed his concern over messages sent to international capital markets.
The minister said he urged his counterparts to face Greece with a spirit of realism and not of revenge and pledged that by early 2010 the government would have offered enough evidence confirming its will to effectively deal with major economic problems.
Eearlier, EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, speaking to reporters had said that both the Greek government and the European Commission acknowledged that there was not efficient action taken by Greece in the last six months in implementing recommendations made by an ECOFIN council last spring to cutting its fiscal deficit below the 3.0 pct level. Almunia said the Commission would present new recommendations in the next two or three months over steps needed to be taken towards fiscal consolidation in Greece.
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