The publication of Yiannis Papathanasiou’s new book, “8 Months,” by Livanis, on the period he served as finance and economy minister in the conservative government of Costas Karamanlis (2004-09), has reignited the debate regarding responsibility for Greece’s fiscal collapse in 2009-10.
In short, the book represents a fresh effort by Karamanlis allies to pass the blame onto his Socialist successor, George Papandreou. The issue has been analyzed repeatedly – occasionally with some objectivity, more often than not with selective use of evidence and monumental inaccuracies.
A report sent by Bank of Greece analysts to its governor, Giorgos Provopoulos, on October 6, 2009, which was just two days after PASOK’s electoral victory, sheds a glaring light on Karamanlis’s real fiscal legacy. The authors’ conclusion, presented in italics for emphasis, was that on the basis of the available data and developments, “we are facing an unprecedented fiscal derailment,” which, they said, “could only be explained to a very small degree by a slump in economic activity.” It is “absolutely certain,” they added, that the country’s fiscal position “is unsustainable.
