Goebbels Would Be Proud: European Union Pulls Report Alleging Spanish Economic Data Is Made Up

One of the underreported stories from last week was the implicit announcement by the official statistical agency of the European Union - Eurostat - that Spanish budget (and who knows what other) data is now just one big lie. Last Tuesday Bloomberg reported: "European Union officials made an extraordinary visit to Spain in September that signals escalating concern about the reliability of the country’s budget data. EU statisticians ordered a so-called ad-hoc visit, a procedure reserved for urgent issues, to assess whether regional officials are complying with recommendations after failing to report all the unpaid bills they had accumulated in 2011, Tim Allen, a Luxembourg-based press officer for the statistics agency Eurostat, said in an e-mail. Eurostat raised concerns about Spanish data in April following at least two “upstream dialog visits,” the second of four levels of checks the agency has on member states’ statistical reporting."

The report continues:

September’s visit signaled a shift in gear to the second-most serious intervention. Ad-hoc visits are triggered by urgent issues regarding the quality or the methods used to produce the data, which only can be resolved with a face-to-face meeting, according to the agency Web site.

Local and regional administrations in Spain need to make “substantial improvements to public accounting and statistical reporting,” the agency said in its April 30 report. “Eurostat notes the lack of initiative and preparedness to follow up the recommendations.”

The damning report by the Eurostat can be found at the following link. Or rather could because as of moments ago one is greeted with the following 404 screen:

What happened? Something that would make Goebbels giddy with pride.

Eurostat, BBG reports again, the European Union’s statistics agency, withdrew a report criticizing Spain’s processes for reporting budget data after consultations with the country’s government, Eurostat spokesman Tim Allen says by e- mail.

"Further exchanges with the Spanish authorities have shown that a few statements in the report were too general," Allen says. "The report has been temporarily withdrawn for amendment."

Too general as in not "everything" is made up, just this, this and this? Laughable.

At least we got yet another glimpse of how that sinking economic titanic, the Eurozone, deals with the truth: by withdrawing it for "amendments." Because one can't have something, anything, casting doubt on the Spanish "miracle recovery" - after all, the last thing the hedge fund "greater fool" scramble into Spain needs is even the faintest glimpse of not only how bad it is, but that when one strips away the endless lies, it has never been worse.

Comments

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Don't worry Tyler. It will be re-re-re-released after several cleansing rounds of 'amendments'.

<One can love or hate the Emperor's new clothes. But one must never question the reality of the clothes themselves.>

[NotApplicable]

"Move along. Nothing to see here."

[Mike Hunt Hurts]

At least China is still honest, right?

[john39]

during Mao's great leap forward in the 1950's... no local party leaders wanted to appear to fail to reach production goals, so they all lied and overstated production...  masking the true dire circumstances until far too late.  the result, mass starvation.

[Oldwood]

But that was because of their desperate need to prove Marxism a superior ideology (and stay alive). That could NEVER happen now.

[MarsInScorpio]

Has nobody told the EU yahoos that the Google/NSA consortium has already archived the page and it will never go away?

And these are the people running the world . . . ?

-30-

[fonestar]

"when times get tough you have to lie"

                                           ~Junkhead

[Richard Chesler]

Amateurs

Such report would never have made it by Obozo's propaganda office.

[Gief Gold Plox]

Google cache has the report: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://epp.eurostat...

Seems incomplete though.

[thisandthat]

Slightly different, but same results: http://dagblog.com/humor-satire/news-future-us-passes-straight-scrap-aut...

[malek]

 so they all lied [on reaching production goals]  ...  the result, mass starvation

And if those pesky local party leaders hadn't lied, Maoism would have been a shining success!! <facepalm>

[caconhma]

For the last 75 years, Zionist mass media has been portraying Nazi Germany and its leaders as ultimate evils. As things are going now, it will change soon. National socialism is the future.

Hitler was an illiterate fool by allowing himself to be involved in a war he did not have a chance to win. He has expelled Jews from Germany but at the same time was trying to become a good friend with Zionist Banking Mafia in the USA and Britain. After all, he was just a preacher.

[ich1baN]

They still do this in China. I lived there.

[thisandthat]

In the USSR entire factory's production wouldn't meet quality standards and went straight to scrap, but no one cared since all they were required was to meet production quotas.

[michael_engineer]

These are not the droids you are looking for.

[0b1knob]

Hey that's MY line....

[Ying-Yang]

Cog says "Don't worry Tyler. It will be re-re-re-released"

Your "re re re re" reminded me of "Respect by" Aretha Franklin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZ3_obMXwU

"Respect" was recorded on February 14, 1967 with Aretha's sisters, Carolyn and Erma, singing backup.

[Dr. Engali]

If that's the case I expect a full shut down of the net since all economic data is made up.

[Cognitive Dissonance]

It doesn't just apply to economic data.

<'History is a set of lies agreed upon' - Napoleon Bonaparte.>

[Beam Me Up Scotty]

I agree Doc. It's all bullshit. I bet we here in the US are the worst offenders too.

[Meat Hammer]

To prevent any silly talk of a totalitarian State we will now implement a totalitarian State.

[moriarty]

ok who has a copy then

[Gief Gold Plox]

Look up, or down... google cache has a partal copy.

[Nobody For President]

Plox did it - Page 2 has the asskicking summary:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_statistics/documents/Spain_technical_visit_24_May_UDV_18-22_June_follow-up_UD.pdf

[lasvegaspersona]

tsk tsk

"When the news is really bad you have to lie"

[Ralph Spoilsport]

I'm sure they just took the page off-line to clean up some typos. (barf)

[akarc]

"just this, this and this? Laughable."

Well of course, note the name "Tim Allen."

[Central Wanker]

It's Tool Time!

[JustObserving]

 "When it becomes serious, you have to lie"  or at least hide the truth.

Spain should hire from the US BLS since they have far more experience in making up statistics. They could also hire Bernanke since he successfully lied throughout his tenure at the Fed.

[Randoom Thought]

Hopefully the Spanish elitists are suffering as greatly as the Spanish masses. It was the Spanish elitists who put the country and its people into debt servitude to the central banking empire.

Then again it is probably cleaner than having roving communist terror squads running around murdering people.

[Mister Ed]

It's great living n a dream world--until you wake up.

[LawsofPhysics]

"Once CONfidence is lost, mark to market will re-establish itself and all hell will break loose as counterparty risk comes home to roost"  - The laws of Nature and physics.

[Watson]

It would be surprising if the original report was not available somewhere on the Internet.

Perhaps someone could be kind enough to post a link.

Watson

[kieran1968]

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fepp...

I fear it's not complete though as a search of the document fails to find the text quoted above. However:

Eurostat concluded that some expenditure which took place in 2011 and in prior years
was not reported at the time it was incurred and consequently was not correctly recorded
according to the accrual principle. Eurostat considers that this re?ects serious weaknesses
of the statistical reporting chain.

[Watson]

Thanks for the link, but the dates seem earlier than I would have expected.

Shouldn't 2013 appear?

Watson

[thisandthat]

Seems to be (same link, same dates) - some more quotes:

Eurostat notes the lack of initiative and preparedness to follow up the recommendations and noted that the report dated 14/8/2012 had not been made available by INE to all parties concerned. 

The findings of this follow-up UDV confirmed and underscored the potential risk to the quality of EDP statistics covering the period between the closure of the Supplier Payment Mechanism (31 December 2011) and the point when the EDP reporting system will have been fully revised to make it permanently more robust, in line with the recommendations of this report. This is unlikely to be before the second half of 2013. 

The financial crisis and the Supplier Payment Mechanism (SPM) have revealed serious weaknesses in the Spanish accounting, as well as the budgetary and statistical reporting systems at AC and municipality level.

Despite measures taken by different levels of government, the EDP reporting system continues to rely on the national budgetary reporting system that is based on expenditure booked in the accounts on the cut-off reporting date. This system in turn relies on public sector accounting standards which in practice do not comply with the accruals principle of accounting. In consequence, for the time-being, the EDP reporting system and the underlying accounting and budgetary reporting systems do not provide the assurances needed.

[W74]

Wait, this is limited to Spain?

[Winston Churchill]

All the PIIGS.

What difference does it make now ? The die is cast.

CDS is cheap ,but will not pay out.

PM's will be on sale Monday ,OPEX.Back up the canoe.

[Bay of Pigs]

Well, they still have paella and sangria, right?

[kiwione]

Document is still available via Google.  Search for document name then select "cached" version :

 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SeKiHp6FbGIJ:epp.eu...

EDIT : sorry, missed the prior post with this link as well

[MarsInScorpio]

As I said in my comment, as soon as it hit the Internet, it was captureed by the Google/NSA complex and archived forever.

You really have to wonder how fools such as these get - and keep - their jobs.

The only answer I can come up with is that their supers are even more clueless than the employees under them.

Yeah, the future is so bright, I gotta wear sunglasses . . .

-30-

[TrumpXVI]

"They say my methods are unsound....Do you think my methods are unsound?"

"I don't see any method at all."

[robertocarlos]

Almighty, Almighty, this is PBR Streetgang, over".

This isn't going to end well.

[Stud Duck]

PBR Streetgang, PBR Streetgang, this Almighty, over!

We see hostiles moving in your direction from all side, we are low on fuel and have to bug out.

Looks like your are fucked, good luck, Over and out,

[Cacete de Ouro]

The wayback machine (internet archive) doesn't have a copy of the report, but it does have about 20 other PDFs in that same directory..

If anyone is interested, you can see the list here
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/pag...

[robertocarlos]

They are all lying but it was easy to see thast the spanish numbers were garbage. You don't go from bad to good numbers that fast. It's impossible.

[Aaronson.Jones....]

No one believed it in the first place so what difference is altering it gonna make? Even Draghi doesn't believe any of the rubbish out of Europe anymore & he's the biggest bullsh1tter of them all. Who's trying to bullsh1t who at this stage?

[worldofdebt]

Incredible!! It's a WORLD OF DEBT!! See Video Below (Funny):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99xsqxzJnXs

[ChaosEquilibrium]

WE ARE ALL being BULLSHITTED::  Bernanke, Geitnher, Draghi, Abe, Dimon, Blankfein......the list goes ON AND ON!!!!! 

THE SYSTEM BROKE IN 2008 and CANNOT BE PUT BACK IN PLACE.......IT WILL BE ALL LIES UNTIL THE END....THEN SHOCK AND HORROR...AND MORE LIES!!!!!

WE ARE GOING DOWN!!!

[trader1]

Tyler, you're not looking hard enough:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_s...

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/government_finance_s...

 Supplementary table for the financial crisis (1)

 2012

 Country:

 SPAIN

 Oct.2013

 Date:

 30/09/2013

 See notes at the bottom of the table for definitions

 Part 1 : Net revenue/cost for general government (impact on government deficit)

 Millions of national currency

 A

 REVENUE (a+b+c+d)

 1,295

 a)

 Guarantee fees receivable 

 910

 b)

 Interest receivable

 385

 c)

 Dividends receivable

 0

 d)

 Other

 0

 B

 EXPENDITURE (e+f+g+h)

 39,655

 e)

 Interest payable (2)

 489

 f)

 Capital injections recorded as deficit-increasing (capital transfer)

 39,139

 g)

 Calls on guarantees

 0

 h)

 Other

 27

 C

 Net revenue/cost for general government (A-B)

 -38,360

 Part 2 : Outstanding amount of assets, actual liabilities (4) and contingent liabilities of general government

General government

Outside general government

 Millions of national currency (3)

Assets   (D=a+b+c)

Liabilities      (D=a+b)

Contingent liabilities   (D=d+e+f)

 D

 Closing balance sheet 

 9894

 54169

 105093

 a)

 Loans

 0

 0

 b)

 Securities other than shares (4)

 0

 54169

 c)

 Shares and other equity

 9894

 d)

 Liabilities and assets outside general government under guarantee (5)

 68399

 e)

 Securities issued under liquidity schemes (6)

 0

 f)

 Special purpose entities (7)

 36694

 1. This table relates to activities undertaken to support financial institutions. It does not include wider economic stimulus packages.

 2. Interest payable includes actual interest, where relevant, and imputed interest on financing (see explanatory note).

3. The appropriate valuation for all entries in part 2 is nominal value, except for ordinary quoted shares held as assets (which should be recorded at market value). In Council Regulation 479/2009, as amended, the nominal value is considered equivalent to the face value. The nominal valuation of certain instruments, notably deposits and various types of bonds, is further specified in chapter VIII.2 of the ESA95 Manual on Government Deficit and Debt.

4. By convention, for the liabilities entry under "general government" (which is the impact on Maastricht Debt from activities to support financial institutions), it is assumed that there is a direct impact on government debt from activities which imply a transfer of cash from government (e.g. transfer of cash relating to capital injections, loans granted, purchase of financial assets), except for the impact from direct borrowing. In addition, imputed financing costs should be included.

5. Guarantees covered are those granted by general government to non-general government units. It does not include guarantees on bank deposits, or guarantees on the liabilities of special purpose entities included below. It is only the value of active guarantees, not the announced ceilings for schemes. It also includes guarantees on assets, whereby government would incur a liability in case of a call.  

6. Liquidity schemes included here are those where the government securities used are not recorded as government debt (see the Eurostat Decision and accompanying guidance note for details). By convention, they are recorded in part 2 as "contingent liabilities outside the general government", as for guarantees, though it should be noted that the exposure of government is likely to be limited.

7. Special purpose entities included here are those where government has a significant role, including a guarantee, but which are classified outside the general government sector (see the Eurostat Decision and accompanying guidance note for details). Their liabilities are recorded outside the general government sector (as contingent liabilities of general government).

 Country footnotes

 Countries may add footnotes to explain their national data.

 1……………..….

 2………………..

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

CAPITAL TRANSFERS

BFA,S.A. conversión preferentes

4,465

BFA, S.A. suscripción de capital

14,463

CATALUNYA BANC conversión preferentes

1,250

CATALUNYA BANC suscripción de capital

8,322

NCG conversión preferentes

1,162

NCG suscripción de capital

3,979

BANCO DE VALENCIA

5,498

TOTAL

39,139

[hangemhigh77]

I trust the government. If they say everything is fine then it must be.