That will teach them never to do that again…
Greece condemned for falsifying data
By Tony Barber
Jan. 12 (FT) — Greece was condemned by the European Commission on Tuesday for falsifying data about its public finances and allowing political pressures to obstruct the collection of accurate statistics. The Commission said figures from Greece’s were so unreliable that its budget deficit and public debt might be even higher than government had claimed last October. At that time Greece estimated its 2009 deficit would be 12.5 per cent of gross domestic product, far above 3.7 per cent predicted in April. “A substantial number of unanswered questions and pending issues still remain in some key areas, such as social security funds, hospital arrears, and transactions between government and public enterprises,” the Commission said. “These questions will need to be resolved, and it cannot be excluded that this will lead to further revisions of Greek government deficit and debt data, particularly for 2008, but possibly also for previous years.”
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