The great difficulty that the government appears to be having in its efforts to calculate the exact amount of the 2008 budget deficit clearly demonstrates the complete incompetence of the people who had been appointed by the former minister of economy and finance.

The country’s economic policy, this debacle tells us, was obviously drawn up on the basis of questionable data and even the prime minister himself could not have had an accurate and clear picture of the precise state of the country’s economy.

The current minister of economy and finance, Yiannis Papathanassiou, a man known for his common sense and clear-mindedness, needs to rid himself of all those people in his ministry who have shown themselves to be incapable of doing the job for which they were hired if he wants to be completely sure that the various data with which he is presented – and on the basis of which he is expected to draw up future financial plans and make important decisions – is correct.