Greece faces legal woes over statistics
THE European Commission is set to launch infringement proceedings against Greece for failing to provide reliable statistics on its budget deficit.
In a report, published yesterday, the Commission said figures from Greece were so unreliable that its budget deficit and public debt might be even higher than the government had claimed last October.
Greece revised its 2008 budget deficit to 7.7 per cent of gross domestic product from five per cent and revised its 2009 budget deficit forecast to over 12 per cent of GDP from 3.7 per cent.
An EU source said: “There will probably be another infringement procedure…because providing reliable statistics is an obligation under EU law and they have failed.”