Greece Outside In: Greece's public finances are in a dire state, and cooking the books won't help

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Greece's public finances are in a dire state, and cooking the books won't help

Primary budget facts and details in the small print can no longer be hidden by creative accounting and a sleight of hand

It was dodgy accounting that got Greece into a mess in the first place. Now, more dodgy accounting is being used to dress up the dire state of the nation's public finances.

When the government in Athens announced last week that it was running a surplus in its primary budget a measure of financial health that strips out interest payments it could only do so by recording more than 3bn (£2.5bn) in arrears owed to hospitals and the social security fund as assets. Without this creative accounting, there would have been a primary deficit.