It's all Greek to EU

But now it adds up, thanks to the Greek government's retirement from data crunching;

[The European Union's] 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.

....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.

Brussels bearing a Gift to Greece.

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.

Good-bye to Greek mythology.