Editing Hellenic Statistical Authority (section)

== History ==
The agency was originally established as the '''National Statistical Service of Greece''' (Εθνική Στατιστική Υπηρεσία Ελλάδος) in 1956 by Legislative Decree 3627/1956. In 1986, Presidential Decree 224/1986 it was transformed into the '''General Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece''' and became part of the [[Ministry of National Economy]]. Law 2392/1996 provided for the arrangement of issues concerning the access of the General Secretariat of the National Statistical Service of Greece to administrative sources and files, as well as statistical confidentiality issues.

On 20 October 2009, the new [[Ministry of Finance (Greece)|finance minister]] in the newly elected [[Cabinet of George Papandreou]] announced that Greece's budget deficit was expected to reach ~12.5% of GDP. On 8 January 2010, the [[European Commission]] published its report 'Report on Greek government deficit and debt statistics'.<ref>[http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4187653/6404656/COM_2010_report_greek/c8523cfa-d3c1-4954-8ea1-64bb11e59b3a PDF] (30 p.)</ref>

On 23 April 2010 Prime Minister [[George Papandreou]] formally requested an international bailout for Greece. The [[European Union]] (EU), [[European Central Bank]] (ECB) and [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) agreed to participate in the bailout.<ref>{{cite news|title=Greece, Out of Ideas, Requests Global Aid|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/business/global/24drachma.html|work=The New York Times|access-date=11 August 2013|first1=Niki|last1=Kitsantonis|first2=Matthew|last2=Saltmarsh|date=23 April 2010}}</ref> On 2 May 2010, the IMF, Papandreou, and other [[Eurozone]] PMs agreed to the [[First bailout package (Greece)|first bailout package]] for €110 billion ($143 billion) over 3 years. The [[Third austerity package (Greece)|third austerity package]] was announced by the Greek government.

As recommended by [[Eurostat]], ESYE was dissolved and replaced by ELSTAT in July 2010 via  Law 3832/2010 (amended since by Laws 3842/2010, 3899/2010, 3943/2011, 3965/2011, 4047/2012 and 4072/2012).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gr/en/history|title=History - ELSTAT|website=www.statistics.gr}}</ref>