Editing Economy of Greece (section)

===Eurozone entry===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;float:left;margin:1em;"
|+ Average Public Debt-to-GDP<br/>(1909–2008{{efn|100-year period until the eve of the Greek debt crisis}})<ref name="Debt Past">{{cite news|title=2010-2018 Greek Debt Crisis and Greece's Past: Myths, Popular Notions and Implications |url =https://www.academia.edu/37583185 |publisher=Academia.edu |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="Historical Debt IMF">{{cite news|title=IMF Data Mapper|url =http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/DEBT1@DEBT/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD |publisher=IMF |access-date=8 September 2018}}</ref>
|-
! Country
! Average Public<br/>Debt-to-GDP (% of GDP)
|-
| United Kingdom
| style="padding-left: 2em" | 104.7
|-
| Belgium
| style="padding-left: 2em" |86.0
|-
| Italy
| style="padding-left: 2em" |76.0
|-
| Canada
| style="padding-left: 2em" |71.0
|-
| France
| style="padding-left: 2em" | 62.6
|-
| Greece
| style="padding-left: 2em" | 60.2
|-
| United States
| style="padding-left: 2em" | 47.1
|-
| Germany
| style="padding-left: 2em" | 32.1
|}

{{See also|Greek Financial Audit, 2004}}
[[File:Euro banknotes 2002.png|thumb|Greece entered the [[Eurozone]] in 2001]]
Greece was accepted into the [[Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union]] by the [[European Council]] on 19 June 2000, based on a number of [[euro convergence criteria|criteria]] (inflation rate, budget deficit, public debt, long-term interest rates, exchange rate) using 1999 as the reference year. After an audit commissioned by the incoming [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] government in 2004, [[Eurostat]] revealed that the statistics for the budget deficit had been under-reported.<ref>{{cite web|title=Report by Eurostat on the revision of the Greek government deficit and debt figures|url=http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4187653/5765001/GREECE-EN.PDF/2da4e4f6-f9f2-4848-b1a9-cb229fcabae3?version=1.0|publisher=Eurostat|access-date=20 June 2015|location=Luxembourg|date=22 November 2004}}</ref> However, even after all corrections that followed, the reference year budget deficit did not exceed the allowable upper limit (3%) according to the Eurostat accounting method in force at the time of application, and thus Greece had still met all critiera for Eurozone entry (details given below).

Most of the differences in the revised budget deficit numbers were due to a temporary change of accounting practices by the new government, i.e., recording expenses when military material was ordered rather than received.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Simitis|first1=Costas|last2=Stournaras|first2=Yannis|title=Greece did not cause the euro crisis|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global/2012/apr/26/greece-europe-north-south-divide|access-date=16 November 2014|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 April 2012}}</ref> However, it was the retroactive application of ESA95 methodology (applied since 2000) by Eurostat, that finally raised the reference year (1999) budget deficit to 3.38% of GDP, thus exceeding the 3% limit. This led to claims that Greece (similar claims have been made about other European countries like Italy)<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/global/14debt.html?pagewanted=all |title=Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe's Crisis |newspaper=The New York Times|first1=Louise |last1=Story |first2=Landon Jr. |last2=Thomas |first3=Nelson D. |last3=Schwartz |date=14 February 2010 }}<br />
{{cite web|url=http://www.cfr.org/italy/enron-italy-parallels-between-romes-efforts-qualify-euro-entry-financial-chicanery-texas/p4455|title=Enron and Italy: Parallels between Rome's efforts to qualify for euro entry and the financial chicanery in Texas|publisher=[[Council on Foreign Relations]]|date=21 February 2002|first=Benn|last=Steil|author-link=Benn Steil|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105110951/http://www.cfr.org/italy/enron-italy-parallels-between-romes-efforts-qualify-euro-entry-financial-chicanery-texas/p4455|archive-date=5 November 2011}}<br />
{{cite web|url=http://www.icmagroup.org/assets/documents/Derivatives%20and%20Public%20Debt%20Management.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223015901/http://www.icmagroup.org/assets/documents/Derivatives%20and%20Public%20Debt%20Management.pdf |archive-date=2013-02-23 |url-status=live|title=Derivatives and Public Debt Management|publisher=International Securities Market Association (ISMA) in cooperation with the Council on Foreign Relations|first=Gustavo|last=Piga|year=2001}}</ref>
had not actually met all five accession criteria, and the common perception that Greece entered the Eurozone through "falsified" deficit numbers.

In the 2005 OECD report for Greece,<ref name="OECD Greece 2005">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wstn-8rGQZQC |title= OECD Economic Surveys (Greece), Vol. 2005/12, September 2005, p.47 |publisher= OECD Publishing |access-date=25 September 2011|isbn= 9789264011748 |date= 22 September 2005 }}</ref> it was clearly stated that "the impact of new accounting rules on the fiscal figures for the years 1997 to 1999 ranged from 0.7 to 1 percentage point of GDP; this retroactive change of methodology was responsible for the revised deficit exceeding 3% in 1999, the year of [Greece's] EMU membership qualification". The above led the Greek minister of finance to clarify that the 1999 budget deficit was below the prescribed 3% limit when calculated with the ESA79 methodology in force at the time of Greece's application, and thus the criteria had been met.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hri.org/news/greek/ana/2004/04-12-08.ana.html#09|title=Finmin says fiscal data saga has ended in wake of EU report|date=8 December 2004}}</ref>

The original accounting practice for military expenses was later restored in line with Eurostat recommendations, theoretically lowering even the ESA95-calculated 1999 Greek budget deficit to below 3% (an official Eurostat calculation is still pending for 1999).

An error sometimes made is the confusion of discussion regarding Greece's Eurozone entry with the controversy regarding usage of derivatives' deals with U.S. Banks by Greece and other Eurozone countries to artificially reduce their reported budget deficits. A currency swap arranged with [[Goldman Sachs]] allowed Greece to "hide" 2.8 billion Euros of debt, however, this affected deficit values after 2001 (when Greece had already been admitted into the Eurozone) and is not related to Greece's Eurozone entry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/07/goldman-bet-against-its-european.html |title=Goldman bet against Entire European Nations|date=16 July 2011 |publisher=Washingtons Blog}}</ref>

A study of the period 1999–2009 by forensic accountants has found that data submitted to Eurostat by Greece, among other countries, had a statistical distribution indicative of manipulation; "Greece with a mean value of 17.74, shows the largest deviation from [[Benford's law]] among the members of the eurozone, followed by Belgium with a value of 17.21 and Austria with a value of 15.25".<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/171aaa36-d8f1-11e0-aff1-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1XWna9dha
|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210201250/https://www.ft.com/content/171aaa36-d8f1-11e0-aff1-00144feabdc0#ixzz1XWna9dha
|archive-date=10 December 2022
|url-access=subscription
|title=Look out for No. 1
|author=Tim Harford
|date=9 September 2011
|newspaper=Financial Times
|access-date=23 September 2014
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Fact and Fiction in EU-Governmental Economic Data|last1=Rauch|first1=Bernhard|last2=Max|first2=Göttsche|last3=Brähler|first3=Gernot|last4=Engel|first4=Stefan|journal=German Economic Review|volume=12|issue=3|pages=244–254|year=2011|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0475.2011.00542.x |s2cid=155072460}}</ref>

{{anchor|2010 debt crisis}} <!-- Linked from [[Greece]] and [[2010–2011 Greek protests]] -->