The European Commission has defended the reliability of Greek statistics on the country’s debt, and called on Athens to counter “misleading media reports” that the data was falsified.
“It is absolutely clear that data on Greek government debt during the period for 2010-2015 have been fully reliable and accurately reported … unlike the situation before this period,” said Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen at a Brussels press conference.
In 2010, the Commission attacked Greece for misreporting falsifying public finance figures. Greece also cooked the books on its budget deficit to join the euro.
The executive fears that the new data, which feeds into its Greek bailout programme, is not seen to be faked in a similar way, despite accusations against the former boss of the independent national statistics agency.
Andreas Georgiou stepped down as head of Elstat a year ago, after being charged in 2013 with inflating figures on the Greek budget deficit in 2009 in a way that made bailout conditions imposed on Athens by eurozone creditors tougher than they might have been.
He was recruited from the International Monetary Fund in 2010 to set up Elstat after the 2009 Greek bailout.
The case is at the centre of a political row in Greece sparked by fears the leftwing Syriza government is politicising independent institutions.
A European Commission spokesperson told EurActiv.com that the executive is closely monitoring a criminal case against Greece’s former head of statistical services.
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